Monopole creation operators as confinement-deconfinement order parameters

We study numerically two versions of the monopole creation operators proposed by Frohlich and Marchetti. The disadvantage of the old version of the monopole creation operator is due to visibility of the Dirac string entering the definition of the creation operator in the theories with coexisting electric and magnetic charges. This problem does not exist for the new creation operator which is rather complicated. Using the Abelian Higgs model with a compact gauge field we show that both definitions of the monopole creation operator can serve as order parameters for the confinement-deconfinement phase transition. The value of the monopole condensate for the old version depends on the length of Dirac string. However, as soon as the length is fixed the old operator certainly discriminates between the phases with condensed and noncondensed monopoles. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.