Quark Confinement and the Renormalization Group

Abstract: Recent approaches to quark confinement are reviewed, with an emphasis on their connection to renormalization group methods. Basic concepts related to confinement are introduced: the string tension, Wilson loops and Polyakov lines, string breaking, string tension scaling laws, center symmetry breaking, and the deconfinement transition at non-zero temperature. Current topics discussed include confinement on $R^3\times S^1$, the real-space renormalization group, the functional renormalization group, and the Schwinger-Dyson equation approach to confinement.