Color Confinement and Spatial Dimensions in the Complex-Sedenion Space

Abstract

The paper aims to apply the complex-sedenions to explore the wave functions and field equations of non-Abelian gauge fields, considering the spatial dimensions of a unit vector as the color degrees of freedom in the complex-quaternion wave functions, exploring the physical properties of the color confinement essentially. J. C. Maxwell was the first to employ the quaternions to study the electromagnetic fields. His method inspires subsequent scholars to introduce the quaternions, octonions, and sedenions to research the electromagnetic field, gravitational field, and nuclear field. The application of complex-sedenions is capable of depicting not only the field equations of classical mechanics, but also the field equations of quantum mechanics. The latter can be degenerated into the Dirac equation and Yang-Mills equation. In contrast to the complex-number wave function, the complex-quaternion wave function possesses three new degrees of freedom, that is, three color degrees of freedom. One complex-quaternion wave function is equivalent to three complex-number wave functions. It means that the three spatial dimensions of unit vector in the complex-quaternion wave function can be considered as the “three colors”; naturally the color confinement will be effective. In other words, in the complex-quaternion space, the “three colors” are only the spatial dimensions, rather than any property of physical substance.