TOWARDS AN ABELIAN FORMULATION OF LATTICE QCD CONFINEMENT

We probe for operators occurring in the APQCD (Abelian-projected QCD) action by evaluating Abelian-projected one-plaquette spectral densitie s in pure gauge SU(3) fixed to the maximal Abelian gauge. CouplingS B( APQCD)(q,L)BAR are extracted from the spectral densities for each repr esentation q, L x L plaquette. We interpret our results to indicate th at q = L = 1 plaquettes dominate the APQCD action. We also see evidenc e for weakly coupled L = 2 plaquettes in the APQCD action since the L dependence of B(APQCD)(q,L)BAR at L = 2 deviates from what is expected if the APQCD action had no L = 2 plaquettes. Moreover, a comparison O f B(APQCD)BAR to B(QED)BAR from a numerical simulation of compact QED indicates that B(APQCD)(1,1)BAR > B(QED)(1,1)BAR even if beta(QED) > b eta(c). Since beta(QED)(1,1)BAR monotonically increases with increasin g beta(QED) and compact QED is not confining when beta(QED) > beta(c), the presence of L > 1 operators is required if APQCD is confining.