Notes on: Confinement of Quarks, K.G.

Wilson

Graham Van Goffrier

December 3, 2019

1 Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to explain why quarks (which we assume exist) cannot
appear as separate final-state particles. The Schwinger Model of 1+1 QED motivates
this discussion by explaining how electrons can be confined, while also leading to an
acquired photon mass due to charge-screening.
The authors construct a model for 3+1 gauge theories in their strong-coupling limit. The
model is built on a 4-Euclidean lattice, leading to a UV cutoff, which lies below the
particle masses in this limit. Therefore the theory is ”far from covariant” – why is this a
problem?
In Schwinger’s model, a phase transition occurs in the charge-coupling below which the
photon is massless (see figure 1). In this model, a similar transition will separate weak
coupling, where quarks are unbound and the gauge field is free, and strong coupling,
where quarks are bound and the gauge field is massive.
A connection exists netween this model and relativistic string models of hadrons, which
has to do with the set of surfaces bounded by paths on a discrete lattice and how they
relate to continuum worldsheets.

2 Quark Binding Mechanism

The current-current propagator Dµν describes the production of a q q̄ pair at position
0 and annihilation at x, calculated in the Feynman path-integral picture by summing
over all paths and gauge fields. ”Final state” particles correspond to large separations
between the q and q̄ paths, at least with large separations between the production and
annihilation. In the Feynman summation, path weight is proportional to the gauge-line
integral over the path.
Performing the gauge field summation first is explicitly possible for Abelian gauge theo-
ries. This integral reduces to a dependence on the quark pair propagator, which leads to a
perimeter weight factor in 3+1 dimensions and an area weight factor in 1+1 dimensions.
In the latter case, large loops are exponentially suppressed as their area, less the area of
any subtended vacuum loops.

1
3 Lattice Quantization of Gauge Fields
Just replacing the action integral with a discrete version does not give gauge-invariance.
Instead we will start on the lattice, proposing a quark field and a gauge field with simple
gauge-type transformations. Gauge-invariant terms take a different form in this formu-
lation, with exponential dependence on A.

4 Outline of Presentation
15 minutes
5 minutes: Overview of Confinement – Motivation - What this paper is and isnt – con-
finement is still not nailed down! - Experimental Motivation - Schwinger Theory 1+1
QED
5 minutes: Wilson’s Model - Area vs. Perimeter Laws - Defining discrete gauge-invariant
theory - Why QCD but not QED?
5 minutes: Impact - Lattice QCD - Wilson Loops - Modern confinement: flux tubes,
t’Hooft dual superconductor