Confinement of quarks and valence gluons in SU(N) Yang-Mills-Higgs models

A bstract In this work, we analyze a class of Yang-Mills models containing adjoint Higgs fields, with SU( N ) symmetry spontaneously broken down to Z ( N ), showing they contain center vortices, Y-junctions formed by them, and junctions where different center vortices are smoothly interpolated by monopole-like configurations. In the context of dual superconductors, these objects represent different states of the gluon field. Center vortices confine quarks to form normal hadron states. The interpolating monopole, which in our model cannot exist as an isolated configuration, is identified with a confined valence gluon. A junction containing a monopole can bind quarks in a color nonsinglet state to form an overall neutral object, identified with a hybrid hadron. These states, formed by quarks bound to a valence gluon, are allowed by QCD, and current experimental collaborations are aimed at identifying them. Finally, considering the general version of the model, based on a compact simple gauge group G , the picture is completed with a heuristic discussion about why it would be natural using as G the dual of the chromoelectric gauge group G e , and external pointlike monopoles to represent the mesonic and baryonic Wilson loops.