Emergent Inert Adjoint Scalar Field in SU(2)‎ Yang-Mills Thermodynamics due to Coarse-Grained Topological Fluctuations

Abstract EN

We compute the phase and the modulus of an energy- and pressure-free, composite, adjoint, and inert field ϕ in an SU(2) Yang-Mills theory at large temperatures.

This field is physically relevant in describing part of the ground-state structure and the quasiparticle masses of excitations.

The field ϕ possesses nontrivial S1-winding on the group manifold S3.

Even at asymptotically high temperatures, where the theory reaches its Stefan-Boltzmann limit, the field ϕ, though strongly power suppressed, is conceptually relevant: its presence resolves the infrared problem of thermal perturbation theory.