Visualisations of Centre-Vortex-Removed

Gauge Fields under Cooling

Animations on this page show topological charge density on a single time-slice of a 16x16x16x32 configuration under cooling. Cooling is performed using an O(a⁴)-three-loop improved action, and the topological charge density is calculated using an O(a⁴)-five-loop improved definition of the field-strength tensor.

Each frame corresponds to a single sweep of cooling. Blue-cyan and red-yellow regions correspond to regions of negative and positive topological charge density respectively.

If displayed in a public forum, attribution to "Daniel Trewartha, Waseem Kamleh and Derek Leinweber, CSSM, University of Adelaide." is gratefully appreciated.

Animation of the topological charge density under cooling on untouched Monte-carlo generated configurations. An initially noisy background is rapidly smoothed, revealing a vacuum dominated by (anti-)instanton-like objects which are stable under cooling.

Animation of the topological charge density under cooling on configurations with centre vortices removed. A background which begins similarly full to the untouched case becomes empty under cooling. Removal of centre vortices has destabilised instantons, which are now destroyed by the cooling algorithm.