Deconfining by Winding

A model for the quantum effective description of the vacuum structure of thermalized SU(3) Yang-Mills theory is proposed. The model is based on Abelian projection leading to a Ginzburg-Landau theory for the magnetic sector. The possibility of topologically non-trivial, effective monopole fields in the deconfining phase is explored. These fields are assumed to be Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield saturated solutions along the compact, euclidean time dimension. Accordingly, a gauge invariant interaction for the monopole fields is constructed. Motivated by the corresponding lattice results the vacuum dynamics is assumed to be dominated by the monopole fields. A reasonable value for the critical temperature is obtained, and the partial persistence of non-perturbative features in the deconfining phase of SU(3) Yang-Mills theory, as it is measured on the lattice, follows naturally.