Statistical physics of dyons and quark confinement

We present a semiclassical approach to the SU(N) Yang–Mills theory whose partition function at nonzero temperatures is approximated by a saddle point – an ensemble of an infinite number of interacting dyons of N kinds. The ensemble is governed by an exactly solvable 3d quantum field theory, allowing calculation of correlations functions relevant to confinement. We show that known criteria of confinement are satisfied in this semiclassical approximation: (i) the average Polyakov line is zero below some critical temperature, and nonzero above it, (ii) a quark-antiquark pair has linear rising potential energy, (iii) the average spatial Wilson loop falls off exponentially with the area, (iv) N2 gluons are canceled out from the spectrum, (v) the critical deconfinement temperature is in good agreement with lattice data. Using the same approximation, we find confinement for the exceptional gauge group G(2) and a first-order deconfinement transition, also in agreement with lattice findings.