Coulomb gauge description of large Yang-Mills fields

Abstract

Recent observations on ambiguities of the Coulomb gauge in Yang-Mills theories are clarified. We point out that discontinuities of the transverse potentials are necessary in order to accommodate arbitrary Pontryagin index. A general argument is given along formal lines, and a numerical example is presented for an O(3)-symmetric gauge-field configuration. The one-pseudoparticle solution is transformed into the Coulomb gauge, and the mechanism for the emergence of an angle characterizing the vacuum is indicated.