While sign-coherent 4-dimensional structures cannot dominate topological charge fluctuations in the QCD vacuum at all scales due to reflection positivity, it is possible that enhanced coherence exists over extended space-time regions of lower dimension. Using the overlap Dirac operator to calculate topological charge density, we present evidence for such structure in pure-glue SU(3) lattice gauge theory. It is found that a typical equilibrium configuration is dominated by two oppositely charged sign-coherent connected structures (“sheets”) covering about 80% of space-time. Each sheet is built from elementary 3D cubes connected through 2D faces, and approximates a low-dimensional curved manifold (or possibly a fractal structure) embedded in the 4D space. At the heart of the sheet is a “skeleton” formed by about 18% of the most intense space-time points organized into a global long-range structure, involving connected parts spreading over maximal possible distances. We find that the skeleton is locally 1-dimensional and propose that its geometrical properties might be relevant for understanding the possible role of topological charge fluctuations in the physics of chiral symmetry breaking.

• Received 24 February 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.68.114505