Monopoles,vortices and confinement

An exact relation is established between an SO(3) lattice gauge theory model without monopoles, and a corresponding SU(2) model. Elimination of the monopoles (and their strings) leads to a substantial lowering of the entropy of thin vortices and a corresponding decrease of the string tension for low β. This is revealed by approximate calculations of the vortex free energy and is confirmed by Monte Carlo data. The value of the physical transition temperature to “hot gluon soup” is also lowered considerably.