Abelian links, monopoles, and glueballs in SU(2) lattice gauge theory Original Research Article

We investigate the masses of 0+ and 2+ glueballs in SU(2) lattice gauge theory using abelian projection to the maximum abelian gauge. We calculate glueball masses using both abelian links and monopole operators. Both methods reproduce the known full SU(2) results quantitatively. Positivity problems present in the abelian projection are discussed. We study the dependence of the glueball masses on magnetic current loop size, and find that the 0+ state requires a much greater range of sizes than does the 2+ state.