Study of the Emergence of a Gluon Mass Scale from Center Vortices Using a Wave-Functional Formalism

Lattice simulations and theoretical analyses consistently identify center vortices and monopoles as key nonperturbative configurations in Yang-Mills theory. In the continuum, the effective representation of mixed oriented and nonoriented center vortices showed that these degrees of freedom generate a confining flux tube with N-ality. Independently, studies of correlation functions reveal an infrared behavior characterized by massivelike scales. In this Letter, field correlators are computed for the first time in a theoretical framework based on center vortices. Using an Abelian-projected vacuum wave functional peaked on the mixed ensemble, we show the emergence of a massivelike gauge-invariant field strength correlator. For this behavior, the nonoriented component in the center-vortex condensate turns out to be essential, as is also the case for producing the correct properties of confining flux tubes.