We relate quark confinement, as measured by the Polyakov-loop order parameter, to color confinement, as described by the Kugo-Ojima/Gribov-Zwanziger scenario. We identify a simple criterion for quark confinement based on the IR behaviour of ghost and
gluon propagators, and compute the order-parameter potential from the knowledge of Landau-gauge correlation functions with the aid of the functional RG. Our approach predicts the deconfinement transition in quenched QCD to be of first order for SU(3) and second order for SU(2) -- in agreement with general expectations. As an estimate for the critical temperature, we obtain T_c=284MeV for SU(3).
A natural explanation of confinement can be given in terms of symmetry. Since color symmetry is exact, the candidate symmetry is dual and related to homotopy,i.e., in (3+1)d, to magnetic charge conservation. A set of r abelian tHooft-like tensors (r
= rank of the gauge group) can be defined and the dual charge is a violation of the corresponding Bianchi identities. It is shown that this is equivalently described by non-abelian Bianchi identities.
A general discussion is presented of the possible symmetries responsible for confinement of color and of their evidence in lattice simulations. The consequences on the phase diagram of $QCD$ are also analyzed.
To check the dual superconductor picture for the quark-confinement mechanism, we evaluate monopole dominance as well as Abelian dominance of quark confinement for both quark-antiquark and three-quark systems in SU(3) quenched lattice QCD in the maxim
ally Abelian (MA) gauge. First, we examine Abelian dominance for the static $Qbar Q$ system in lattice QCD with various spacing $a$ at $beta$=5.8-6.4 and various size $L^3$x$L_t$. For large physical-volume lattices with $La ge$ 2fm, we find perfect Abelian dominance of the string tension for the $Qbar Q$ systems: $sigma_{Abel} simeq sigma$. Second, we accurately measure the static 3Q potential for more than 300 different patterns of 3Q systems with 1000-2000 gauge configurations using two large physical-volume lattices: ($beta$,$L^3$x$L_t$)=(5.8,$16^3$x32) and (6.0,$20^3$x32). For all the distances, the static 3Q potential is found to be well described by the Y-Ansatz: two-body Coulomb term plus three-body Y-type linear term $sigma L_{min}$, where $L_{min}$ is the minimum flux-tube length connecting the three quarks. We find perfect Abelian dominance of the string tension also for the 3Q systems: $sigma^{Abel}_{3Q}simeq sigma_{3Q} simeq sigma$. Finally, we accurately investigate monopole dominance in SU(3) lattice QCD at $beta$=5.8 on $16^3$x32 with 2,000 gauge configurations. Abelian-projected QCD in the MA gauge has not only the color-electric current $j^mu$ but also the color-magnetic monopole current $k^mu$, which topologically appears. By the Hodge decomposition, the Abelian-projected QCD system can be divided into the monopole part ($k_mu e 0$, $j_mu=0$) and the photon part ($j_mu e 0$, $k_mu=0$). We find monopole dominance of the string tension for $Qbar Q$ and 3Q systems: $sigma_{Mo}simeq 0.92sigma$. While the photon part has almost no confining force, the monopole part almost keeps the confining force.
The strong coupling constant $1/g^2$ and the vacuum angle $theta$ of the SU(3) Yang-Mills theory are investigated in the infrared limit under the renormalization group flow. It is shown that the theory has an infrared attractive fixed point at $1/g^2
= theta = ,0$, which leads to linear confinement and naturally solves the strong CP problem. In particular, any initial value of $theta eq 0$ is found to be driven to $theta = 0$ at macroscopic distances, where quarks and gluons freeze into hadrons by the confinement mechanism.