Static quark potential from center vortices in the presence of dynamical fermions

For the first time, center vortices are identified on SU(3) lattice ensembles that include dynamical fermions. Using a variational method, the static quark potential is calculated on untouched, vortex -removed, and vortex-only fields. Two dynamical ensembles and one pure gauge ensemble are studied, allowing for an exploration of the impact of dynamical fermions on the center-vortex vacuum. Novel modifications to the standard Coulomb term are introduced to describe the long range behavior of the vortex-removed potential. These modifications remove a source of systematic error in the fitted string tension on the original ensembles. Our pure Yang-Mills result is consistent with previous studies, where projected center-vortex fields only reproduce approximately two thirds of the string tension. Remarkably, we find that the vortex-only fields on both dynamical lattices are able to fully reproduce the respective untouched string tensions.