Aspects of electric and magnetic variables in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory

We introduce a novel decomposition of the four-dimensional SU(2) gauge field. This decomposition realizes explicitly a symmetry between electric and magnetic variables, suggesting a duality picture between the corresponding phases. It also indicates that ut large distances the Yang-Mills theory involves a three component unit vector field, a massive Lorentz vector field, and a neutral scalar field that condenses which yields the mass scale. Our results are consistent with the proposal that the physical spectrum of the theory contains confining strings which are tied into stable knotted solitons. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.