Speaker
Description
This presentation will focus on defining the net topological charge within distinct topological objects in the nontrivial ground-state fields of $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ lattice gauge theory. Such an analysis has been called for by the growing number of models for Yang-Mills topological structure which propose the existence of fractionally charged objects. We perform this investigation for $\mathrm{SU(3)}$ colour at a range of temperatures across the deconfinement phase transition, providing an assessment of how the topological structure evolves with temperature. This reveals a connection between the topological charge and holonomy of the system which must be satisfied by finite-temperature models of QCD vacuum structure. We then proceed to discuss instanton-dyons, one such model which exhibits a promising consistency with our results. To conclude, we will present preliminary findings for the gauge groups $\mathrm{SU(2)}$ and $\mathrm{SU(4)}$ at zero temperature to analyse the dependence of the topological structure on the number of colours.
