We study the long distance interaction for hybrid hadrons, with a static gluon, a quark and an antiquark with lattice QCD techniques. A Wilson loop adequate to the static hybrid three-body system is developed and, using a 24^3 x 48 periodic lattice with beta=6.2 and a ~ 0.075 fm, two different geometries for the gluon-quark segment and the gluon-antiquark segment are investigated. When these segments are perpendicular, the static potential is compatible with confinement realized with a pair of fundamental strings, one linking the gluon to the quark and another linking the same gluon to the antiquark. When the segments are parallel and superposed, the total string tension is larger and agrees with the Casimir Scaling measured by Bali. This can be interpreted with a type-II superconductor analogy for the confinement in QCD, with repulsion of the fundamental strings and with the string tension of the first topological excitation of the string (the adjoint string) larger than the double of the fundamental string tension.
Motivated by the gluon-chain model of flux tube formation, we compute and diagonalize the transfer matrix in lattice SU(2) gauge theory for states containing heavy static quark-antiquark sources, with separations up to one fermi. The elements of the transfer matrix are calculated by variational Monte Carlo methods, in a basis of states obtained by acting on the vacuum state with zero, one, and two-gluon operators in Coulomb gauge. The color Coulomb potential is obtained from the zero gluon to zero gluon element of the transfer matrix, and it is well-known that while this potential is asymptoti…
The flux tube between a quark and an antiquark in Coulomb gauge is imagined in the gluon-chain model as a sequence of constituent gluons bound together by Coulombic nearest-neighbor interactions. We diagonalize the transfer matrix in SU(2) lattice gauge theory in a finite basis of states containing a static quark-antiquark pair together with zero, one, and two gluons in Coulomb gauge. We show that while the string tension of the color-Coulomb potential (obtained from the zero-gluon to zero-gluon element of the transfer matrix) overshoots the true asymptotic string tension by a factor of about …
We present a state-of-the-art determination of the complex valued static quark-antiquark potential at phenomenologically relevant temperatures around the deconfinement phase transition. Its values are obtained from non-perturbative lattice QCD simulations using spectral functions extracted via a novel Bayesian inference prescription. We find that the real part, both in a gluonic medium as well as in realistic QCD with light $u$, $d$ and $s$ quarks, lies close to the color singlet free energies in Coulomb gauge and shows Debye screening above the (pseudo) critical temperature $T_c$. The imagina…
The colour fields, created by a static gluon-quark-antiquark system, are computed in quenched SU(3) lattice QCD, in a $24^3\times 48$ lattice at $β=6.2$ and $a=0.07261(85)\,fm$. We study two geometries, one with a U shape and another with an L shape. The particular cases of the two gluon glueball and quark-antiquark are also studied, and the Casimir scaling is investigated in a microscopic perspective. This also contributes to understand confinement with flux tubes and to discriminate between the models of fundamental versus adjoint confining strings, analogous to type-II and type-I supercondu…
The distribution of gluon fields in hadrons is of fundamental interest in QCD. Using lattice QCD we have observed the formation of gluon flux tubes within 3 quark (baryon) and quark plus antiquark (meson) systems for a wide variety of spatial distributions of the color sources. In particular we have investigated three quark configurations where two of the quarks are close together and the third quark is some distance away, which approximates a quark plus diquark string. We find that the string tension of the quark-diquark string is the same as that of the quark-antiquark string on the same lat…
The static gluon-quark-antiquark interaction is investigated using lattice QCD techniques. A Wilson loop adequate to the static hybrid three-body system is developed and, using a $24^3 \times 48$ periodic lattice with $β= 6.2$, the potential energy of the system is measured for different geometries. For the medium range behaviour, when the quarks are far apart, we find a string tension which is compatible with two fundamental strings. On the other hand, when the quark and antiquark are nearby, the string tension is larger than two fundamental strings and is compatible with the Casimir scaling.
Thermodynamics of a heavy quark-antiquark pair in SU(3)-QCD is studied both below and above the deconfinement critical temperature $T_c$. In the quenched case, a model of the string passing through heavy valence gluons yields a correct estimate of $T_c$ and the critical behavior of the string tension below $T_c$. For two light flavors, entropy and internal energy below $T_c$ can be obtained from the partition function of heavy-light mesons and baryons. To calculate the free energy of the system above $T_c$, we apply second-order perturbation theory in the interaction of the quark-gluon plasma …
The chromoelectric and chromomagnetic fields, created by a static gluon-quark-antiquark system, are computed in quenched SU(3) lattice QCD, in a $24^3\times 48$ lattice at $β=6.2$ and $a=0.07261(85) fm$. We compute the hybrid Wilson Loop with two spatial geometries, one with a U shape and another with an L shape. The particular cases of the two gluon glueball and quark-antiquark are also studied, and the Casimir scaling is investigated in a microscopic perspective. This microscopic study of the colour fields is relevant to understand the structure of hadrons, in particular of the hybrid excita…
The chromoelectric and chromomagnetic fields, created by a static gluon-quark-antiquark system, are computed in the quenched approximation of lattice QCD, in a $24^3\times 48$ lattice at $β=6.2$. We study two geometries, one with a U shape and another with an L shape. The degenerate case of the two gluon glueball is also studied. This is relevant to understand the microscopic structure of hadrons, in particular of hybrids. This also contributes to understand confinement with flux tubes of the chromoelectric field, and to discriminate between the models of fundamental or adjoint tubes.
The colour fields, created by a static gluon-quark-antiquark system, are computed in quenched SU(3) lattice QCD, in a $24^3\times 48$ lattice at $β=6.2$ and $a=0.07261(85)\,fm$. We compute the hybrid Wilson Loop including the cases when the gluon and the antiquark are superposed, i. e., the quark-antiquark case and when the quark and antiquark are superposed, i. e., the gluon-gluon case. The Casimir scaling is investigated, in the two gluon glueball case the Casimir scaling is consistent with the formation of an adjoint string. Measuring the decay of the tail in the mid section of the flux tub…
We discuss quark antiquark energies and the screening mass in hot QCD using the non-perturbative lattice approach. For this purpose we analyze properties of quark antiquark energies and entropies at infinitely large separation of the quark antiquark pair at low and high temperatures. In the limit of high temperatures these energies and entropies can be related perturbatively to the temperature dependence of the Debye mass and the coupling. On the one hand our analysis thus suggests that the quark antiquark energies at (infinite) large distances are rather related to the Debye screening mass an…
The static potentials for quark-antiquark-gluon and 3-gluon systems are computed with lattice QCD methods. For the quark-antiquark-gluon hybrid meson the static potential is obtained for different values of the angle between the quark-gluon and antiquark-gluon segments. The simulations support the formation of an adjoint string for small angles, while for large angles, the adjoint string is replaced by two fundamental strings connecting the gluon and the quarks. For the 3-gluon glueball, we discuss the corresponding Wilson loops and show that the gluons are connected by fundamental strings whe…
We present colour field density profiles for some of the first SU(3) gluonic excitations of the flux tube in the presence of a static quark-antiquark pair. The results are obtained from a large set of gluonic operators.
We study, by numerical simulations on a lattice, the behaviour of the gauge-invariant quark-antiquark nonlocal condensates in the QCD vacuum with dynamical fermions. A determination is also done in the quenched approximation and the results are compared with the full-QCD case. The fermionic correlation length is extracted and compared with the analogous gluonic quantity.
While lattice QCD allows for reliable results at small momentum transfers (large quark separations), perturbative QCD is restricted to large momentum transfers (small quark separations). The latter is determined up to a reference momentum scale $Λ$, which is to be provided from outside, e.g. from experiment or lattice QCD simulations. In this article, we extract $Λ_{\overline{\textrm{MS}}}$ for QCD with $n_f=2$ dynamical quark flavors by matching the perturbative static quark-antiquark potential in momentum space to lattice results in the intermediate momentum regime, where both approaches are…
The spectrum of gluon excitations in the presence of a static quark-antiquark pair is presented. Our results are obtained from computer simulations of gluons on anisotropic space-time lattices using an improved gauge-field action. Measurements for quark-antiquark separations r ranging from 0.1 fm to 4 fm and for various orientations on the lattice are made. Discretization errors and finite volume effects are taken into account. Surprisingly, the spectrum does not exhibit the expected onset of the universal pi/r Goldstone excitations of the effective QCD string, even for r as large as 4 fm.
In the context of the dual superconductor picture for the confinement mechanism, we study maximally Abelian (MA) projection of quark confinement in SU(3) quenched lattice QCD with $32^4$ at $β$=6.4 (i.e., $a \simeq$ 0.058 fm). We investigate the static quark-antiquark potential $V(r)$, its Abelian part $V_{\rm Abel}(r)$ and its off-diagonal part $V_{\rm off}(r)$, respectively, from the on-axis lattice data. As a remarkable fact, we find almost perfect Abelian dominance for quark confinement, i.e., $σ_{\rm Abel} \simeq σ$ for the string tension, on the fine and large-volume lattice. We find als…
We argue that the renormalization factors for nonlocal quark-antiquark and gluon operators at space-like and time-like separations connected by a Wilson line coincide to all orders in perturbation theory. We calculate the anomalous dimensions and renormalization constants of quark-antiquark and gluon operators to three- and two-loop accuracy, respectively, and also compute vacuum expectation values of these operators to three-loop accuracy.
We discuss the entropy carried by a quark-antiquark pair, in particular across the deconfinement transition. We therefore rely on a self-consistent solution to Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity, capable of mimicking essential features of QCD. In particular we introduce a novel model that still captures well the QCD confinement and deconfinement phases, while allowing the introduction of a temperature in a phase which resembles the confined phase, this thanks to it being dual to a small black hole. We pay due attention to some subtleties of such model. We confirm the lattice picture of a strong …
We study the string tension as a function of temperature, fitting the SU(3) lattice QCD finite temperature free energy potentials computed by the Bielefeld group. We compare the string tension points with order parameter curves of ferromagnets, superconductors or string models, all related to confinement. We also compare the SU(3) string tension with the one of SU(2) Lattice QCD. With the curve providing the best fit to the finite temperature string tensions, the spontaneous magnetization curve, we then show how to include finite temperature, in the state of the art confining and chiral invari…
We combine techniques previously utilised to study flux tube field density profiles and to study the excited spectrum of the gluonic fields produced by a static quark-antiquark pair. Working with pure gauge SU(3) fields discretised in a lattice, we utilise Wilson loops with a large basis of gluonic spacelike Wilson lines to include different excitations of the quark-antiquark flux tube. To increase the signal over noise ratio, we use the multihit technique in the temporal Wilson lines and the APE smearing in spatial Wilson lines. The number of gluonic operators combined with the space points w…
Three-dimensional lattice QCD is studied by Monte Carlo simulations within the quenched approximation. At zero temperature a quark-antiquark condensate is observed in the limit of vanishing quark masses. The condensate vanishes continuously at the finite-temperature deconfinement phase transition of the theory. A natural interpretation of this phenomenon in the full theory with dynamical quarks is in terms of the spontaneous flavor symmetry breaking $U(N_f) \to U(N_f/2)\times U(N_f/2)$. In addition, the spectrum of low-lying Dirac operator eigenvalues is computed and found to be consistent wit…
In lattice QCD, colour confinement manifests in flux tubes. We compute in detail the quark-antiquark flux tube for pure gauge SU(3) dimension $D=3+1$ for quark-antiquark distances R ranging from 0.4 fm to 1.4 fm. To increase the signal over noise ratio, we apply the improved multihit and extended smearing techniques. We detail the gauge invariant squared components of the colour electric and colour magnetic fields both in the mediator plane between the static quark and static antiquark and in the planes of the sources. We fit the field densities with appropriate ansatze and we observe the scre…
We compute the quark-antiquark flux tube for pure gauge SU(3) in space-time 3 + 1 dimensions. To increase the signal over noise ratio, we apply the improved multihit and extended smearing techniques. We fit the field densities with an appropriate ansatz and we observe both the screening of the color fields and the quantum widening of the flux tube in the mediator plane and in the charge planes.
Thermodynamics of a heavy quark-antiquark pair in SU(3)-QCD is studied below the deconfinement critical temperature, $T_c$. In the quenched case, a model of the string passing through heavy valence gluons yields a correct estimate of $T_c$ and a behavior of the string tension near $T_c$. For two light flavors, entropy and internal energy can be obtained from the partition function of heavy-light mesons and baryons. They are in a good qualitative agreement with the lattice results.
In this work we compute the color fields in the mediator plane between a static quark and a static antiquark using quenched lattice QCD. In special, we see the effect of the quark-antiquark distance on the flux tube. To obtain this results an improved multihit technique is developed and an extend smearing technique is used. Then, we also discuss the flux-tubes in a system composed of two quarks and two antiquarks. The ground and first excited states fields are studied for different dispositions of the system.
A recently developed model for the QCD analytic invariant charge is compared with quenched lattice simulation data on the static quark-antiquark potential. By employing this strong running coupling one is able to obtain the confining quark-antiquark potential in the framework of the one-gluon exchange model. To achieve this objective a technique for evaluating the integrals of a required form is developed. Special attention is paid here to removing the divergences encountered the calculations. All this enables one to examine the asymptotic behavior of the potential at both small and large dist…
Utilizing lattice QCD results for the potential of two static antiquarks and two dynamical quarks as well as quark model techniques for the dynamics of two heavy antiquarks in a cloud of two light quarks, we are provided with an accurate framework for the study of possibly existing heavy-heavy-light-light tetraquarks. Among the possible quantum numbers of such a system, we find binding in only one channel, the scalar isosinglet. Solving the Schroedinger equation for the displacement of the heavy antiquarks and taking systematic errors into account, we find an antibottom-antibottom-light-light …
We study the correlators of Polyakov loops, and the corresponding gauge invariant free energy of a static quark-antiquark pair in 2+1 flavor QCD at finite temperature. Our simulations were carried out on $N_t$ = 6, 8, 10, 12, 16 lattices using a Symanzik improved gauge action and a stout improved staggered action with physical quark masses. The free energies calculated from the Polyakov loop correlators are extrapolated to the continuum limit. For the free energies we use a two step renormalization procedure that only uses data at finite temperature. We also measure correlators with definite E…
We study exotic static 3-body potentials, utilizing generalized Wilson Loops in SU(3) lattice QCD. For the quark-antiquark-gluon techniques we address the angles of 0, 45, 60, 90, 120, 135 and 180 degrees, between the quark-gluon and the antiquark-gluon segments. We calculate the form of the static potential and discuss whether, or not, two-body interactions exist between the three different bodies, and study the existence of repulsion between the strings. We also perform a first study of the interactions in the system of three gluon.
The separation of a heavy quark and antiquark pair leads to the formation of a tube of flux, or string, which should break in the presence of light quark-antiquark pairs. This expected zero temperature phenomenon has proven elusive in simulations of lattice QCD. We present simulation results that show that the string does break in the confining phase at nonzero temperature.
In this paper we show that for a nucleon at rest if the quarks and/or antiquarks are in motion inside the nucleon producing chromo-magnetic field then the mass sum rule in QCD is violated when the confinement potential energy at large distance $r$ rises linearly with $r$ (or faster). Hence we find that the mass of the nucleon at rest is not equal to the mass-energy of all the quarks plus antiquarks plus gluons inside the nucleon if there exists chromo-magnetic field inside the nucleon and the confinement potential energy at large distance $r$ rises linearly with $r$ (or faster).
We study the color correlation between static quark and antiquark ($q\bar q$) in the confined phase via reduced density matrices $ρ$ defined in color space. We adopt the standard Wilson gauge action and perform quenched calculations with the Coulomb gauge condition for reduced density matrices. The spatial volumes are $L^3 = 8^3$, $16^3$, $32^3$ and $48^3$, with the gauge couplings $β= 5.7$, 5.8 and 6.0. Each element of the reduced density matrix in the sub space of quarks' color degrees of freedom of the $q\bar q$ pair is calculated from staples defined by link variables. As a result, we find…
The functional integral for QCD is reformulated by introducing explicitly an integration over the fluctuations of composite quark-antiquark bound states. Chiral symmetry breaking by the color singlet scalar field induces masses for the fermions. Our formulation with scalar fluctuations may be useful for lattice gauge theories by modifying the spectrum of the Dirac operator in the vacuum and permitting a simple connection to chiral perturbation theory. We propose that a ``condensate'' of quark-antiquark bound states in the color octet channel generates masses of the gluons by the Higgs mechanis…
In a framework that makes close contact with modern effective field theories for non-relativistic bound states at zero temperature, we study the real-time evolution of a static quark-antiquark pair in a medium of gluons and light quarks at finite temperature. For temperatures ranging from values larger to smaller than the inverse distance of the quark and antiquark, 1/r, and at short distances, we derive the potential between the two static sources, and calculate their energy and thermal decay width. Two mechanisms contribute to the thermal decay width: the imaginary part of the gluon self ene…
We propose a formulation of the QCD partition function which leads to a series expansion of the quark determinant in any given baryonic sector. The r-th term gives the gauge-invariant contribution of the valence quarks plus r quark-antiquark pairs. This expansion can be used to investigate any baryonic sector, starting from the nucleon up to high baryonic densities.
With the aim of clarification of color correlations among quarks, we investigate the color correlation between a static quark and an antiquark (static $q\bar q$) below and above the phase transition temperature $T_c$ through the entanglement entropy(EE). By a quenched lattice QCD calculation on an anisotropic lattice adopting the standard Wilson gauge action in the Coulomb gauge, we compute a reduced density matrix $ρ$ defined in the color space, and the entanglement entropy $S_{\rm EE}$ constructed from $ρ$. The spatial volume is $L^3 = 24^3$ and the temporal extents are $N_T = 12,13,14,15,16…
We study the QCD phase diagram, in particular we study the critical points of the two main QCD phase transitions, confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. Confinement drives chiral symmetry breaking, and, due to the finite quark mass, at small density both transitions are a crossover, while they are a first or second order phase transition in large density. We study the QCD phase diagram with a quark potential model including both confinement and chiral symmetry. We present the confinement of quark fields into a flux tube, obtained in SU(3) quenched lattice QCD, to illustrate the importance o…
The spectrum of gluons in the presence of a static quark-antiquark pair is studied using Monte Carlo simulations on anisotropic space-time lattices. For very small quark-antiquark separations R, the level orderings and approximate degeneracies disagree with the expectations from an effective string theory. As the quark-antiquark separation R increases, a dramatic rearrangement of the energies occurs, and above 2 fm, all of the levels studied show behavior consistent with an effective string description. The energy spacings are nearly pi/R, but a tantalizing fine structure remains. In addition …
This letter presents a novel analysis of the action/energy density distribution around a static quark-antiquark pair in SU(3) lattice quantum chromodynamics. Using the Fourier transformation of the link variable, we remove the high-momentum gluon and extract the flux-tube component from the action/energy density. When the high-momentum gluon is removed, the statistical fluctuation is drastically suppressed, and the singularities from the quark self-energy disappear. The obtained flux-tube component is broadly distributed around the line connecting the quark and the antiquark.
We discuss color screening in 2+1 flavor QCD in terms of free energies of a static quark-antiquark pair. Thermal modifications of long distance correlations in quark-antiquark systems are studied in terms of static meson correlators. We calculate the Polyakov loop correlator, the color-singlet Wilson line correlator in Coulomb gauge and the cyclic Wilson loop on lattices using the HISQ/Tree action and almost physical quark mases with $N_τ= 4, 6, 8, 10, 12$. We present results in the continuum limit for temperatures up to $T \lesssim 650$ MeV and discuss the linear divergence of the cyclic Wils…
We study the singlet part of the free energy of a static quark anti-quark pair at finite temperature in three flavor QCD with degenerate quark masses using $N_τ=4$ and 6 lattices with Asqtad staggered fermion action. We look at thermodynamics of the system around phase transition and study its scaling with lattice spacing and quark masses.
