Pure gauge theory on the lattice

Abstract

In the last chapter we started the construction of QCD on the lattice. We discussed a particularly important feature of QCD, namely the self-interaction of gluons. This self-interaction makes pure gluodynamics, i.e., QCD without quarks, an interesting, highly nontrivial theory. Pure gluodynamics shows color confinement, an important property of full QCD. Since gluodynamics is much easier to handle than QCD with quarks, it is an important subject for studies of confinement and its underlying mechanisms. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.