Higgs-confinement phase transitions with fundamental representation matter

Understand

We discuss the conditions under which Higgs and confining regimes in gauge theories with fundamental representation matter fields can be sharply distinguished.

• It is widely believed that these regimes are smoothly connected unless they are distinguished by the realization of global symmetries.
• However, we show that when a $U(1)$ global symmetry is spontaneously broken in \emph{both} the confining and Higgs regimes, the two phases can be separated by a phase boundary.
• The phase transition between the two regimes may be detected by a novel topological vortex order parameter.