Four-dimensional Yang–Mills theory with a three-dimensional fermion membrane

Abstract

We study the four-dimensional Yang–Mills theory in the presence of a three-dimensional membrane of fermions by lattice Monte Carlo simulations. We analyze the phase structure of this theory at finite temperature. Below the phase transition temperature of the pure Yang–Mills theory, we obtain an unconventional phase with spatially-nonuniform vacuum. In this phase, the expectation value of the Polyakov loop is finite on the membrane, and it exponentially decays to zero outside the membrane.