Gauge Theory of the Superconductor-Insulator Transition*

The standard model of particle physics is extraordinarily successful at explaining much of the physical realm. Yet, one of its most profound aspects, the mechanism of confinement, that binds quarks into hadrons and is supposedly mediated by chromo-electric strings in a condensate of magnetic monopoles, is not thoroughly understood and lacks direct experimental evidence. We demonstrate that the infinite-resistance superinsulating state, a mirror analog of superconductivity, emerging at the insulating side of the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) is a condensed matter realization of the quark confinement. We reveal that the mechanism ensuring the infinite resistance of superinsulators is the binding of Cooper pairs into neutral “mesons” by electric strings and establish a mapping of quarks onto Cooper pairs in superinsulators. We reveal a Cooper pair analog of the asymptotic freedom effect implying that systems smaller than the string scale appear in a quantum metallic state.