Surface operators and magnetic degrees of freedom in Yang-Mills theories

Magnetic degrees of freedom are manifested through violations of the Bianchi identities and associated with singular fields. Moreover, these singularities should not induce color non-conservation. We argue that the resolution of the constraint is that the singular fields, or defects are Abelian in nature. Recently proposed surface operators seem to represent a general solution to this constraint and can serve as a prototype of magnetic degrees of freedom. Some basic lattice observations, such as the Abelian dominance of the confining fields, are explained then as consequences of the original non-Abelian invariance.