Center-symmetric dimensional reduction of hot Yang-Mills theory

It is expected that incorporating the center symmetry in the conventional dimensionally reduced effective theory for high-temperature SU(N_c) Yang-Mills theory, EQCD, will considerably extend its applicability towards the deconfinement transition. The construction of such a center-symmetric effective theory for the case of two colors is reviewed and lattice simulation results are presented. The simulations demonstrate that unlike EQCD, the new center-symmetric theory undergoes a second order confining phase transition in complete analogy with the full theory.