An Introduction to the Confinement Problem: (821 Lecture Notes in Physics)

This book addresses the confinement problem, which quite generally deals with the behavior of non-abelian gauge theories, and the force which is mediated by gauge fields, at large distances. The word “confinement” in the context of hadronic physics originally referred to the fact that quarks and gluons appear to be trapped inside mesons and baryons, from which they cannot escape. There are other, and possibly deeper meanings that can be attached to the term, and these will be explored in this book. Although the confinement problem is far from solved, much is now known about the general features of the confining force, and there are a number of very well motivated theories of confinement which are under active investigation. This volume gives a both pedagogical and concise introduction and overview of the main ideas in this field, their attractive features, and, as appropriate, their shortcomings.

Table of Contents:
Introduction.- Global Symmetry, Local Symmetry, and the Lattice.- What is Confinement?- Order Parameters for Confinement.- Properties of the Confining Force.- Confinement From Center Vortices I.- Monopoles, Calorons, and Dual Superconductivity.- Coulomb Confinement.- Ghosts, Gluons, and Dyson-Schwinger Equations.- Large-N, Planar Diagrams, and the Gluon-Chain Model.- The Vacuum Wavefunctional.- Anti-deSitter Space and Confinement.- Concluding Remarks.- Index.

Review :
From the reviews: “The author presumably realized that, with not much effort and starting from those notes, he could write a diluted and more accessible version expanding and updating the material. This excellent book on confinement is the result. ... This is indeed a very good book. I enjoyed reading it and … I learned a lot from it. … It is definitely a research book that provides readers with a guide to the most updated confinement models.” (Giuseppe Nardelli, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2012 d) “This volume gives both a pedagogical and a concise, correct introduction along with an overview of the main ideas involved in such an important area, their fascinating features as well as some limitations. The book is beautifully produced with special emphasis on the relevance of center symmetry and lattice formulation as well as an introduction to current research on confinement.” (Paninjukunnath Achuthan, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1217, 2011)