Color confinement and dual superconductivity of the vacuum. I

Abstract

We study the dual superconductivity of the ground state of SU(2) gauge theory in connection with confinement. We do this measuring on the lattice a disorder parameter describing condensation of monopoles. Confinement appears as a transition to the dual superconductor, independent of the Abelian projection defining monopoles. Some speculation is made on the existence of a more appropriate disorder parameter. A similar study for SU(3) is presented in a companion paper.