New findings for topological excitations in SU(3) lattice gauge theory

We probe the SU(3) vacuum using eigenvectors of the Dirac operator with an arbitrary phase for the temporal boundary condition. We consider configurations with topological charge \Q\ = I near the QCD phase transition and at low temperatures on a torus. For all our ensembles we show that the zero mode of the Dirac operator changes its position as one changes the phase of the boundary condition. For ensembles near the QCD phase transition our results closely resemble the behavior of zero modes for Kraan-van Baal solutions of the classical Yang-Mills equations where the individual lumps are interpreted as monopoles. Our findings near T-c and on the torus show that for both cases an excitation with topological charge \Q\ = I is built from several separate lumps. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.