Speaker
Erich Poppitz
(university of toronto)
Description
I will review the conjecture that the thermal deconfinement transition in pure Yang-Mills theory is continuously connected to a quantum phase transition in softly-broken N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on R^3 x S^1. The latter is driven by a competition between various exotic ``topological" molecules, and, since it occurs in a calculable weak-coupling regime, a great deal can be learned about its properties. I will present evidence, from past and ongoing work, in favor of the continuity conjecture. I will also discuss possible directions for future study and speculations on the implications for the pure Yang-Mills deconfinement transition.
Author
Erich Poppitz
(university of toronto)
