Confinement, chiral symmetry breaking, and the axial anomaly from domain formation at intermediate resolution

Abstract

Based on general renormalization group arguments, Polyakov's loop-space formalism, and recent analytical lattice arguments, suggesting, after Abelian gauge fixing, a description of pure gluodynamics by means of a Georgi-Glashow like model, the corresponding vacuum fields are defined in a nonlocal way. Using lattice information on the gauge invariant field strength correlator in full QCD, the resolution scale ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{b},$ at which these fields become relevant in the vacuum, is determined. For SU(3) gauge theory it is found that ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{b}\ensuremath{\sim}2.4$ GeV, 3.1 GeV, and 4.2 GeV for ${(N}_{F}=4,$ ${m}_{q}=18$ MeV), ${(N}_{F}=4,$ ${m}_{q}=36$ MeV), and pure gluodynamics, repectively. Implications for the operator product expansion of physical correlators are discussed. It is argued that the emergence of magnetic (anti)monopoles in the vacuum at resolution ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{b}$ is a direct consequence of the randomness in the formation of a low entropy Higgs condensate. This implies a breaking of chiral symmetry and a proliferation of the axial U(1) anomaly at this scale already. Justifying Abelian projection, a decoupling of non-Abelian gauge field fluctuations from the dynamics occurs. The condensation of (anti)monopoles at ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{c}<{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{b}$ follows from the demand that vacuum fields ought to have vanishing action at any resolution. As monopoles condense they are reduced to their cores, and hence they become massless. Apparently broken gauge symmetries at resolutions ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{c}<\ensuremath{\Lambda}<~{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{b}$ are restored in this process.