Baiyang Zhang (University of Minnesota): Deconfinement in SU(N) gauge theory with a massive adjoint fermion

Friday 4 Jun 2021, 14:00 → 16:00 Europe/Budapest

online

When compactified on a circle, SU(N) gauge theory with a massive adjoint Majorana fermion has an interesting phase structure.  We will discuss the deconfinement transition as a function of the fermion mass, with a focus on the large N limit.  This phase transition is driven by a competition of effects due to a rich variety of topological defects. Besides the fundamental instanton-monopole configurations, in this theory there are magnetic bions which are molecular states made of two instanton-monopoles, and in general both contribute to the effective potential for the Polyakov loop in a way controlled by the fermion mass.  We will talk about how non-zero fermion mass changes the vacuum expectation value of the gauge holonomy, leading to a center symmetry breaking phase transition.