1202.5584 (Hiroaki Kouno et al.)

A QCD-like theory with the ZN symmetry    [PDF]

Hiroaki Kouno, Yuji Sakai, Takahiro Makiyama, Kouhei Tokunaga, Takahiro Sasaki, Masanobu Yahiro

We propose a QCD-like theory with the Z_N symmetry. The flavor-dependent twisted boundary conditions (TBC) in temporal direction are imposed on the SU(N) gauge theory with fundamental quarks with N degenerate flavors. The QCD-like theory is useful to understand the mechanism of confinement, since the Z_N symmetry is exact. Dynamics of the QCD-like theory is studied by imposing the TBC on the Polyakov-extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model. The TBC model is applied to two cases of N=2 and 3. The first-order deconfinement transition takes place at some temperature Tc. The perfect color confinement in which the Polyakov loop is zero occurs below Tc, while the Z_N symmetry is spontaneously broken above T_c. The perfect color confinement restores the flavor symmetry and finally induces the flavor confinement. Above Tc, both color and flavor are deconfined. The present model prediction can be tested in future by lattice QCD, since the QCD-like theory has no sign problem.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.5584