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The Static Quark Potential from the Gauge Independent Abelian Decomposition

We investigate the relationship between colour confinement and the gauge independent Cho-Duan-Ge Abelian decomposition. The decomposition is defined in terms of a colour field $n$; the principle novelty of our study is that we have defined this field in terms of the eigenvectors of the Wilson Loop. This establishes an equivalence between the path ordered integral of the non-Abelian gauge fields with an integral over an Abelian restricted gauge field which is tractable both theoretically and numerically in lattice QCD. We circumvent path ordering without needing an additional path integral. By using Stokes' theorem, we can compute the Wilson Loop in terms of a surface integral over a restricted field strength, and show that the restricted field strength may be dominated by certain structures, which occur when one of the quantities parametrising the colour field $n$ winds itself around a non-analyticity in the colour field. If they exist, these structures will lead to a area law scaling for the Wilson Loop and provide a mechanism for quark confinement. We search for these structures in quenched lattice QCD. We perform the Abelian decomposition, and compare the electric and magnetic fields with the patterns expected theoretically. We find that the restricted field strength is dominated by objects which may be peaks a single lattice spacing in size or extended string-like lines of electromagnetic flux. The objects are not isolated monopoles, as they generate electric fields in addition to magnetic fields, and the fields are not spherically symmetric, but may be either caused by a monopole/anti-monopole condensate, some other types of topological objects or a combination of these. Removing these peaks removes the area law scaling of the string tension, suggesting that they are responsible for confinement.