Seminar “Theory of Hadronic Matter under Extreme Conditions”

Date and Time: Wednesday, 14 September 2022, at 4:00 PM

Venue: Blokhintsev lecture hall, Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, online seminar on Zoom

Information about seminar and link to join via Zoom

Seminar topic: “Tachyon condensation in a chromomagnetic background field and the groundstate of QCD”

Speaker: Michael Bordag

Abstract:

In an attempt toward a better understanding of the vacuum of QCD I propose a condensation of the tachyonic mode in SU(2). In the Savvidy vacuum, this mode is known to be unstable. In an approximation where the gluon fields are reduced to the tachyonic mode, which can be considered as a complex scalar field in (1+1)-dimensions, I apply the methods known from the Higgs model and finite temperature field theory. The symmetry is spontaneously broken by a condensate of tachyons, i.e. of the unstable mode. As a result, I obtain a stable vacuum state with energy below zero. The energy of this state is a minimum in two parameters, the chromomagnetic background field, and the condensate. Raising the temperature, I observe a phase transition; and a restoration of the symmetry.