{"record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"1a7cf238950b64b11cd9999eaf1a78d99f3010ef9a04d36d39fd9ce1ae1caec1","created":"2026-10-03T07:18:09Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":[],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["5475cf5dc5b1a72283d26dc95dc6e00d7ea4e00096a7c6492e409a1816eeb011"],"salt":"bad87717406a3e6e9f0f85f59e2961db69bd30e4c5de903709a0696167000ec1","schema":"pubphys.record/2","site":"pubphys.com","target":null,"type":"revision"},"content":{"answer_type":"yes-no","assisted_by":[],"external_id":"qft.generalized-symmetries.higgs-confinement-order","kind":"well-posed","literature_status":"contested","n":"1","parents":[],"plain":"With quarks present, the usual test for confinement fails, and the confining phase and the Higgs phase (where a condensed field gives the force carriers mass) seem smoothly connected. Whether some generalized symmetry or order parameter still separates them is unknown.","posed_since":"1979","precise":"With dynamical matter in the fundamental representation, the $Z_N$ one-form center symmetry is explicitly broken and the Wilson-loop area law is no longer an order parameter; Fradkin and Shenker (1979) showed the phases can be connected. Determine whether, in theories with additional global symmetries (for example a $U(1)$ broken in both regimes, as in dense QCD), a vortex-holonomy or other non-local order parameter sharply separates Higgs and confining phases, and whether this holds generally.","problem_ref":null,"references":"","settled_by":"A proof that the proposed order parameter is quantized and differs between the phases, confirmed by lattice simulation of a model with a phase transition along every path.","status_note":"Cherman, Jacobson, Sen and Yaffe (2020-2024) proposed a vortex-holonomy order parameter; its validity is disputed, and lattice studies (2023-2025) report gauge-independent transitions in SU(2) gauge-scalar models.","title":"Sharp distinction between Higgs and confining phases with fundamental matter","topic_ref":"5eb0476a75858c5dd523d1082965cb71e335c77a7a5cf121927138b7c11c6ef2"},"attested":{"attestation":{"batch":null,"client_id":null,"id_token_sha256":null,"kind":"platform"},"record_hash":"cc5c5db61d9fdebf1bf3ca7f76faba4156c624083182bd92657664392aec45f8","schema":"pubphys.attested/1"},"envelope":{"attested_hash":"640f323c59b32da26758739df0bd482221d4a84d299179ee0e1fa186354fc2e2","platform_signature":{"key_id":"c6afc19b31429869751f06879c75cd64ea92654423d15b44be775bf1310a60da","sig":"tXa2mcZ7_Vr3h1H-Tq9bYarnZHpPGRxiUzeIbk4uO3s_E35ZwBXZi2HpLHdgVMV59w9RMXMfhTlQQyVAygRDDA"},"schema":"pubphys.envelope/1"},"record_hash":"cc5c5db61d9fdebf1bf3ca7f76faba4156c624083182bd92657664392aec45f8","leaf_index":1911}