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One-quark state near a boundary of the confinement phase of QCD

Maxim N. Chernodub1,2, Vladimir A. Goy3,4, Alexander V. Molochkov3,5, and Alexey S. Tanashkin5

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 034512 – Published 25 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/sf1y-yjw8

Abstract

We discuss a one-quark state in the confinement phase near a reflective chromometallic boundary both at finite and zero temperature. Using numerical simulations of lattice Yang-Mills theory, we show that the test quark is confined to the neutral mirror by an attractive potential of the Cornell type, suggesting the existence of a mirror-bound one-quark state, a “quarkiton.” Surprisingly, the tension of the string spanned between the quark and the mirror is lower than the fundamental string tension. The quarkiton state exhibits a partial confinement: while the quark is localized in the vicinity of the mirror, it can still travel freely along it. Such quarkiton states share similarity with the surface excitons in metals and semiconductors that are bound to their negatively charged images at a boundary. The quarkitons can exist at the hadronic side of the phase interfaces in QCD that arise, for example, in the thermodynamic equilibrium of vortical quark-gluon plasma.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 034512– Published 25 February, 2026
  • Received 11 November 2025
  • Accepted 14 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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