Higgs mechanism and quark confinement

We discuss a recently proposed mechanism for quark confinement obtained by combining the Higgs mechanism for producing massive gauge mesons with the theory of magnetic monopoles. The theory is mathematically equivalent to the quarks being magnetic monopoles moving in a superconducting vacuum. When the quarks in a hadron are pulled apart, they remain connected by vortices of magnetic flux; consequently, at large interquark distances the energy of the system becomes proportional to the quark separation. At low energies the quarks are closer together than the penetration depth of the superconductor, and thus they appear effectively free.