{"id":"hexagon/2610.00341","pdf":"https://hexagonmath.org/pdf/2610.00341v2","url":"https://hexagonmath.org/abs/2610.00341v2","tags":["math.PR","msc:81T25","msc:82B20","msc:60K35","msc:81T13","msc:22E30","Bakry-Emery curvature","Dobrushin uniqueness","ball arithmetic","gauge fixing"],"score":0,"title":"Mass Gap of Four-Dimensional Lattice Yang--Mills Theory in a Forest Gauge","domain":"math-ph","origin":"ai-generated","source":"hexagon","authors":["Deep Bhattacharjee","Ushashi Bhattacharya"],"reviews":0,"subject":"math-ph","summary":"We fix the gauge of four-dimensional lattice Yang--Mills theory on a field of straight lines that meets every plaquette in exactly one link, so that each free link interacts with twelve others instead of eighteen. In this gauge the theory has a unique infinite-volume state with exponential decay of correlations and a positive mass gap at fixed lattice spacing, for SU(2) beyond the limit of every single-link argument in a gauge of this kind, by blocks made of the three free links of a plaquette, for every SU(N) beyond the curvature limit of the ungauged theory, and for SU(3) on a range more…","category":"research","comments":0,"disputed":false,"division":"math","mentions":0,"ai_models":["Claude Code"],"discussed":0,"published":"2026-10-18","reactions":{},"withdrawn":false,"authorship":"mixed","formalized":false,"human_understanding":"some"}