The infrared behavior of the quark-gluon vertex of quenched Landau gauge QCD is studied by analyzing its Dyson-Schwinger equation. Building on previously obtained results for Green functions in the Yang-Mills sector we analytically derive the existence of power-law infrared singularities for this vertex. We establish that dynamical chiral symmetry breaking leads to the self-consistent generation of components of the quark-gluon vertex forbidden when chiral symmetry is forced to stay in the Wigner-Weyl mode. In the latter case the running strong coupling assumes an infrared fixed point. If chiral symmetry is broken, either dynamically or explicitely, the running coupling is infrared divergent. Based on a truncation for the quark-gluon vertex Dyson-Schwinger equation which respects the analytically determined infrared behavior numerical results for the coupled system of the quark propagator and vertex Dyson-Schwinger equation are presented. The resulting quark mass function as well as the vertex function show only a very weak dependence on the current quark mass in the deep infrared. From this we infer by an analysis of the quark-quark scattering kernel a linearly rising quark potential with an almost mass independent string tension in the case of broken chiral symmetry. Enforcing chiral symmetry does lead to a Coulomb type potential. Therefore we conclude that chiral symmetry breaking and confinement are closely related. Furthermore we discuss aspects of confinement as the absence of long-range van-der-Waals forces and Casimir scaling. An examination of experimental data for quarkonia provides further evidence for the viability of the presented mechanism for quark confinement in the Landau gauge.
We derive a gauge-invariant low-energy effective model of the Yang-Mills theory. We find that the effective gluon propagator belongs to the Gribov-Stingl type and agrees with it when a mass term which breaks nilpotency of the BRST symmetry is included. We show that the effective model with gluon propagator of the Gribov-Stingl type exhibits both quark and gluon confinement: the Wilson loop average has the area law and the Schwinger function violates reflection positivity. However, we argue that both quark and gluon confinement can be obtained even in the absence of such a mass term.
Correlation functions of Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory are calculated from their equations of motion. Solutions for the three- and four-gluon vertices and the role of two-loop diagrams in the gluon propagator equation are discussed.
I analyze the IR fixed point structure of Landau gauge QCD. Precisely the fixed point with a strong kinematic singularity of the quark-gluon vertex that proved crucial for the recently proposed confinement mechanism in the quenched approximation is absent in dynamical QCD. Therefore, the IR singularities do not induce asymptotic quark confinement but the long-range interaction is screened by unquenching loops at scales of the order of the quark mass. This provides the prerequisite for a microscopic description of deconfinement and string breaking. The fixed points determine the qualitative for…
We investigate the relevant gluon-momentum region for confinement in lattice QCD on $16^4$ at $β$=5.7, 5.8 and 6.0, based on the Fourier expansion. We find that the string tension $σ$, i.e., the confining force, is almost unchanged even after removing the high-momentum gluon component above 1.5GeV in the Landau gauge. In fact, the confinement property originates from the low-momentum gluon component below 1.5GeV, which is the upper limit to contribute to $σ$. In the relevant region, smaller gluon momentum component is more important for confinement. Next, we develop a manifestly gauge-covarian…
We derive a gauge-invariant low-energy effective model of the SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. We find that the effective gluon propagator belongs to the Gribov-Stingl type, irrespective of the gauge choice. In the maximally Abelian gauge, especially, we demonstrate that the model exhibits both quark confinement and gluon confinement: the Wilson loop average has area law and the Schwinger function violates reflection positivity. Moreover, we give a formula for the string tension calculable from the gluon propagator of the gauge-invariant field strength and gives a good estimate for the string tension.…
We show that the application of a novel gauge invariant truncation scheme to the Schwinger-Dyson equations of QCD leads, in the Landau gauge, to an infrared finite gluon propagator and a divergent ghost propagator, in qualitative agreement with recent lattice data.
The Yang-Mills Schrödinger equation is variationally solved in Coulomb gauge for the vacuum sector using a trial wave functional, which is strongly peaked at the Gribov horizon. We find the absence of gluons in the infrared and also a confining quark potential.
Starting from the lattice Landau gauge gluon and ghost propagator data we use a sequence of Padé approximants, identify the poles and zeros for each approximant and map them into the analytic structure of the propagators. For the Landau gauge gluon propagator the Padé analysis identifies a pair of complex conjugate poles and a branch cut along the negative real axis of the Euclidean $p^2$ momenta. For the Landau gauge ghost propagator the Padé analysis shows a single pole at $p^2 = 0$ and a branch cut also along the negative real axis of the Euclidean $p^2$ momenta. The method gives precise es…
The interquark static potential for heavy mesons described by a massive One Gluon Exchange interaction obtained from the propagator of the truncated Dyson-Schwinger equations does not reproduced the expected Cornell potential. I show that no formulation based on a finite propagator will lead to confinement of quenched QCD. I propose a mechanism based on a singular nonperturbative coupling constant which has the virtue of giving rise to a finite gluon propagator and (almost) linear confinement. The mechanism can be slightly modified to produce the screened potentials of unquenched QCD.
Nonperturbative effects in the quark-gluon thermodynamics are studied in the framework of Vacuum Correlator Method. It is shown, that two correlators: colorelectric $D_1^E(x)$ and colormagnetic $D^H(x)$, provide the Polyakov line and the colormagnetic confinement in the spatial planes respectively. As a result both effects produce the realistic behavior of $P(T)$ and $s(T)$, being in good agreement with numerical lattice data.
Expanding the Landau gauge gluon and ghost two-point functions in a power series we investigate their infrared behavior. The corresponding powers are constrained through the ghost Dyson-Schwinger equation by exploiting multiplicative renormalizability. Without recourse to any specific truncation we demonstrate that the infrared powers of the gluon and ghost propagators are uniquely related to each other. Constraints for these powers are derived, and the resulting infrared enhancement of the ghost propagator signals that the Kugo-Ojima confinement criterion is fulfilled in Landau gauge Yang-Mil…
We propose a new reformulation of Yang-Mills theory in which three- and four-gluon self-interactions are eliminated at the price of introducing a sufficient number of auxiliary fields. We discuss the validity of this reformulation in the possible applications such as dynamical gluon mass generation, color confinement and glueball mass calculation. We emphasize the transverse-gluon pair condensation as the basic mechanism for dynamical mass generation. The confinement is realized as a consequence of a fact that the auxiliary fields become dynamical in the sense that they acquire the kinetic ter…
A few issues on gluon confinement are addressed with the help of a renormalizable gauge model obtained by introducing a replica of the Faddeev-Popov action and a soft breaking of the BRST symmetry. Confinement turns out to be encoded in the spectral properties of the corresponding correlation functions. While the propagators of the elementary fields have no interpretation in terms of physical excitations, examples of local composite operators whose two-point correlation functions possess a spectral representation with positive spectral density can be introduced. These composite operators turn …
We report on the first self-consistent solution of the Dyson-Schwinger equation (DSE) for the three-gluon vertex. Based on earlier results for the propagators which match data from lattice Monte-Carlo simulations, we obtain results for the three-gluon vertex that are in very good agreement with available lattice data likewise. Feeding these results back into the propagator DSEs leads to some changes especially in the gluon propagator. These changes allow us to assess previously used models for the three-gluon vertex and to systematically estimate the influence of neglected two-loop diagrams wi…
We summarise an analysis of the infrared regime of Landau gauge QCD by means of a flow equation approach. The infrared behaviour of gluon and ghost propagators is evaluated. The results provide further evidence for the Kugo-Ojima confinement scenario. We also discuss their relation to results obtained with other functional methods as well as the lattice.
In lattice QCD the computation of one-particle irreducible (1PI) Green's functions with a large number (> 2) of legs is a challenging task. Besides tuning the lattice spacing and volume to reduce finite size effects, the problems associated with the estimation of higher order moments via Monte Carlo methods and the extraction of 1PI from complete Green's functions are limitations of the method. Herein, we address these problems revisiting the calculation of the three gluon 1PI Green's function.
The infrared structure of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory is studied by means of lattice gauge simulations using a new constrained cooling technique. This method reduces the action while all Polyakov lines on the lattice remain unchanged. In contrast to unconstrained cooling, quark confinement is still intact. A study of the Hessian of the Yang-Mills action shows that low action (semi-) classical configurations can be achieved, with a characteristic splitting between collective modes and higher momentum modes. Besides confinement, the semiclassical configurations also support the topological susceptib…
The interpretation of the Landau gauge lattice gluon propagator as a massive type bosonic propagator is investigated. Three different scenarios are discussed: i) an infrared constant gluon mass; ii) an ultraviolet constant gluon mass; iii) a momentum dependent mass. We find that the infrared data can be associated with a massive propagator up to momenta $\sim 500$ MeV, with a constant gluon mass of 723(11) MeV, if one excludes the zero momentum gluon propagator from the analysis, or 648(7) MeV, if the zero momentum gluon propagator is included in the data sets. The ultraviolet lattice data is …
We report preliminary results of our ongoing lattice computation of the Landau gauge quark propagator and the soft gluon limit of the quark-gluon vertex with 2 flavors of dynamical O(a) improved Wilson fermions.
We address the interpretation of the Landau gauge gluon propagator at finite temperature as a massive type bosonic propagator. Using pure gauge SU(3) lattice simulations at a fixed lattice volume $\sim(6.5fm)^3$, we compute the electric and magnetic form factors, extract a gluon mass from Yukawa-like fits, and study its temperature dependence. This is relevant both for the Debye screening at high temperature $T$ and for confinement at low $T$.
We report on the lattice computation of the Landau gauge gluon propagator at finite temperature, including the non-zero Matsubara frequencies. Moreover, the corresponding Källén-Lehmann spectral density is computed, using a Tikhonov regularisation together with the Morozov discrepancy principle. Implications for gluon confinement are also discussed.
The gluon propagator is investigated in Landau and in maximal center gauge for the gauge group SU(2) by means of lattice gauge simulations. We find that Gribov ambiguities arising from the implementation of Landau gauge have a small influence on the propagator. In agreement with previous findings, we obtain that the small momentum behavior is dominated by a mass, which is of order $(1.48 \pm 0.05) \sqrtσ$, where $σ$ is the string tension. By removing the confining vortices from the full Yang-Mills ensemble, we convert full YM-theory into a theory which does not confine quarks. We find that in …
We report on preliminary results for the triple-gluon and the quark-gluon vertex in Landau gauge. Our results are based on two-flavor and quenched lattice QCD calculations for different quark masses, lattice spacings and volumes. We discuss the momentum dependence of some of the vertices's form factors and the deviations from the tree-level form.
We investigate Landau gauge $SU(3)$ Yang-Mills theory in a systematic vertex expansion scheme for the effective action with the functional renormalisation group. Particular focus is put on the dynamical creation of the gluon mass gap at non-perturbative momenta and the consistent treatment of quadratic divergences. The non-perturbative ghost and transverse gluon propagators as well as the momentum-dependent ghost-gluon, three-gluon and four-gluon vertices are calculated self-consistently with the classical action as only input. The apparent convergence of the expansion scheme is discussed and …
We present the first Dyson-Schwinger calculation of the three-gluon vertex in Landau-gauge QCD in which its full covariant structure is back-coupled self-consistently. We truncate a Bose-symmetrized version of the DSE at the level of one-loop diagrams, model the four-gluon vertex, and neglect terms that contain non-primitively divergent n-point functions; the ghost-gluon vertex is taken bare to good approximation. Fit functions for the ghost and gluon propagators that interpolate between scaling and decoupling are presented. In all aspects of our study Bose symmetry is manifest, from the trunc…
We propose to realize a mass gap in QCD not imposing the transversality condition on the full gluon self-energy, while preserving the color gauge invariance condition for the full gluon propagator. Since due to color confinement the gluon is not a physical state, none of physical observables/processes in low-energy QCD will be directly affected by such a temporary violation of color gauge invriance/symmetry. In order to make the existence of a mass gap perfectly clear the corresponding subtraction procedure is introduced. All this llows one to etablish the general structure of the full gluon p…
In Landau gauge QCD the infrared behavior of the propagator of transverse gluons can be analytically determined to be a power law from Dyson-Schwinger equations. This propagator clearly shows positivity violation, indicating the absence of the transverse gluons from the physical spectrum, i.e. gluon confinement. A simple analytic structure for the gluon propagator is proposed capturing all important features. We provide arguments that the Landau gauge quark propagator possesses a singularity on the real timelike axis. For this propagator we find a positive definite Schwinger function.
The effects of a thermalized gas of gluons in a q,q bar plasma is investigated. Then the interplay between Debye screening and confinement is analyzed in a simplified model. While the one-gluon exchange gives results very similar, but not equal, to the electric case, the phenomenological introduction of confinement leads to very different results.
We propose a vacuum condensate of mass dimension 2 consisting of gluons and ghosts in the framework of the manifestly covariant gauge fixing of the SU(N) Yang-Mills theory. This quantity is both BRST and anti-BRST invariant for any gauge. It includes the ghost condensation $C^a \bar{C}^a$ proposed first in the modified Maximal Abelian gauge and reduces to the gluon condensates $(\mathscr{A}_μ)^2$ of mass dimension 2 proposed recently in the Landau gauge of the Lorentz gauge fixing. The vacuum condensate of dimensions 2 can provide the effective mass for gluons and ghosts. The possible existenc…
Employing functional approaches the infrared behaviour of Landau gauge QCD vertex functions is investigated. Results for the ghost-gluon, three-gluon and quark-gluon vertex functions are presented. As can be analytically shown a linear rising potential between heavy quarks is generated by infrared singularities in the dressed quark-gluon vertex. The selfconsistent mechanism that generates these singularities implies the existence of scalar Dirac amplitudes of the full vertex and the quark propagator. These amplitudes can only be present when chiral symmetry is broken, either explicitly or dyna…
The quenched Landau gauge gluon propagator is investigated in lattice QCD with large assimetric lattices, accessing momenta as low as $q \sim 100$ MeV or smaller. Our investigation focus on the IR limit of the gluon dressing function, testing the compatibility with recent solutions of the Dyson-Schwinger equations. In particular, the low energy parameters $κ$ and $α(0)$ are measured.
We consider the heavy quark limit of Coulomb gauge QCD, with the truncation of the Yang-Mills sector to include only (dressed) two-point functions. We find that the rainbow-ladder approximation to the gap and Bethe-Salpeter equations is nonperturbatively exact and moreover, we provide a direct connection between the temporal gluon propagator and the quark confinement potential. Further, we show that only bound states of color singlet quark-antiquark (meson) and quark-quark (SU(2) baryon) pairs are physically allowed.
The coupled system of the quark-gluon vertex and quark propagator Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSEs) is investigated within Landau gauge QCD. The aim is to get a deeper insight into the mechanisms of quark confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and into a possible relation between these two phenomena. To this end an earlier study is extended by improving systematically on the truncations imposed on the quark-gluon vertex DSE. A clear infrared enhancement for all tensor structures of the quark-gluon vertex is obtained.
We address several aspects of gluon propagation at zero and finite temperature. In particular, we study the violation of spectral positivity, we discuss a method to extract the Källén-Lehmann spectral density of a particle (be it elementary or bound state) propagator and apply it to compute gluon spectral densities from lattice data. Furthermore, we also consider the interpretation of the Landau gauge gluon propagator at finite temperature as a massive type bosonic propagator.
Using lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) we perform an unquenched calculation of the gluon propagator in Landau gauge. We use configurations generated with the AsqTad quark action by the MILC collaboration for the dynamical quarks and compare the gluon propagator of quenched QCD (i.e., the pure Yang-Mills gluon propagator) with that of 2+1 flavor QCD. The effects of the dynamical quarks are clearly visible and lead to a significant reduction of the nonperturbative infrared enhancement relative to the quenched case.
We establish exactly and uniquely the infrared structure of the full gluon propagator in QCD, not solving explicitly the corresponding dynamical equation of motion. By construction, this structure is an infinite sum over all possible severe (i.e., more singular than $1/q^2$) infrared singularities. It reflects the zero momentum modes enhancement effect in the true QCD vacuum. Its existence exhibits a characteristic mass (the so-called mass gap), which is responsible for the scale of nonperturbative dynamics in the QCD ground state. The theory of distributions, complemented by the dimensional r…
We investigate the generation of a gluon screening mass in Yang-Mills theory in the Landau gauge. We propose a gauge-fixing procedure where the Gribov ambiguity is overcome by summing over all Gribov copies with some weight function. This can be formulated in terms of a local field theory involving constrained, nonlinear sigma model fields. We show that a phenomenon of radiative symmetry restoration occurs in this theory, similar to what happens in the standard nonlinear sigma model in two dimensions. This results in a nonzero gluon screening mass, as seen in lattice simulations.
We discuss a method to extract the Källén-Lehmann spectral density of a particle (be it elementary or bound state) propagator and apply it to compute gluon spectral densities from lattice data. Furthermore, we also consider the interpretation of the Landau-gauge gluon propagator at finite temperature as a massive-type bosonic propagator.
The quark-gluon vertex in Landau gauge QCD is investigated in the Dyson-Schwinger approach. The aim is to obtain a fully self-consistent solution of the quark propagator and the quark-gluon vertex Dyson-Schwinger equation (DSE) in the vacuum using the gluon propagator as input from other calculations. The truncation scheme used in an earlier study is systematically improved and the first decisive step towards a full solution is presented. First results for the quark propagator with a fully dressed quark-gluon vertex in a truncation that incorporates all twelve vertex tensor-structures are show…
An introduction is given into current lattice investigations of the non-perturbative gluon and ghost propagators, in the light of the Gribov-Zwanziger and Kugo-Ojima scenarios of confinement, in the context of results obtained from the non-perturbative Dyson-Schwinger approach in the continuum and in connection with the vortex mechanism of confinement.
We explore the analytic structure of the gluon and quark propagators of Landau gauge QCD from numerical solutions of the coupled system of renormalized Dyson--Schwinger equations and from fits to lattice data. We find sizable negative norm contributions in the transverse gluon propagator indicating the absence of the transverse gluon from the physical spectrum. A simple analytic structure for the gluon propagator is proposed. For the quark propagator we find evidence for a mass-like singularity on the real timelike momentum axis, with a mass of 350 to 500 MeV. Within the employed Green's funct…
We discuss how the presence of a squeezed gluon vacuum might lead to quark confinement in the framework of the global colour model of QCD. Using reduced phase space quantization of massive vector theory we construct a Lorentz invariant and colourless squeezed gluon condensate and show that it induces a permanent, nonlocal quark interaction (delta-function in 4-momentum space), which according to Munczek and Nemirovsky might lead to quark confinement. Our approach makes it possible to relate the strength of this effective confining quark interaction to the strength of the physical gluon condens…
An effective Lagrangian approach to describe the dynamics of confinement and symmetry breaking in the process of quark-gluon to hadron conversion is proposed. The deconfined quark and gluon degrees of freedom of the perturbative QCD vacuum are coupled to color neutral condensate fields representing the non-perturbative vacuum with broken scale and chiral symmetry. As a first application the evolution of gluons emitted by a fragmenting high energy $q\bar q$ pair from the perturbative to the non-perturbative regime with confinement is studied. For reasonable parameter choice the solution of the …
We consider the effects of the Faddeev-Popov determinant in the Coulomb gauge on the confinement properties of the QCD vacuum. We show that the the determinant is needed to regularize the otherwise divergent functional integrals near the Gribov horizon but still enables large field configurations to generate IR enhanced running coupling. The physical gluon propagator is found to be strongly suppressed in the IR consistent with expectations from lattice gauge calculations.
In this paper we present a new model for a gauge field theory such that self-interacting spin-one particles can be confined in a compact domain. The necessary conditions to produce the confinement appear already in the properties of the eikonal structure generated by the particular choice of the dynamics. The gluons do not follow along Minkowski null cone and thus can be equivalently interpreted as if they were massive.
We study nonperturbative features of QCD using the dual Ginzburg-Landau theory. The color confinement is realized through the dual Higgs mechanism, which is brought by QCD-monopole condensation. We investigate the infrared screening effect on the color confinement due to the light-quark pair creation. By solving the Schwinger-Dyson equation, we find that the dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking is largely brought by the confining force.
We apply the Bogoliubov compensation principle to QCD. The non-trivial solution of compensation equations for a spontaneous generation of the anomalous three-gluon interaction leads to the determination of parameters of the theory, including behavior of the gauge coupling $α_s(Q^2)$ without the Landau singularity, the gluon condensate $V_2\,\simeq\,0.01\,GeV^4$, mass of the lightest glueball $M_G\,\simeq\,1500\,MeV$ in satisfactory agreement with the phenomenological knowledge. The results strongly support the applicability of N.N. Bogoliubov compensation approach to gauge theories of the Stan…
The infrared behaviour of gluon and ghost propagators, ghost-gluon vertex and three-gluon vertex is investigated for both the covariant Landau and the non-covariant Coulomb gauge. Assuming infrared ghost dominance, we find a unique infrared exponent in the d=4 Landau gauge, while in the d=3+1 Coulomb gauge we find two different infrared exponents. We also show that a finite dressing of the ghost-gluon vertex has no influence on the infrared exponents. Finally, we determine the infrared behaviour of the three-gluon vertex analytically and calculate it numerically at the symmetric point in the C…
We fix exactly and uniquely the infrared structure of the full gluon propagator in QCD, not solving explicitly the corresponding dynamical equation of motion. By construction, this structure is an infinite sum over all possible severe (i.e., more singular than $1/q^2$) infrared singularities. It reflects the zero momentum modes enhancement effect in the true QCD vacuum, which is due to the self-interaction of massless gluons. It existence automatically exhibits a characteristic mass (the so-called mass gap). It is responsible for the scale of nonperturbative dynamics in the true QCD ground sta…
We reinvestigate the problem of Gribov ambiguities within the Landau (or Lorentz) gauge for the ghost and gluon propagators in pure SU(2) lattice gauge theory. We make use of the full symmetry group of the action taking into account {\it large}, i.e. non-periodic $\mathbb{Z}(2)$ gauge transformations leaving lattice plaquettes invariant. Enlarging in this way the gauge orbits for any given gauge field configuration the Landau gauge can be fixed at higher local extrema of the gauge functional in comparison with standard (overrelaxation) techniques. This has a clearly visible effect not only for…
We study the gluon and ghost propagators of SU(2) lattice Landau gauge theory and find their low-momentum behavior being sensitive to the lowest non-trivial eigenvalue (λ_1) of the Faddeev-Popov operator. If the gauge-fixing favors Gribov copies with small (large) values for λ_1 both the ghost dressing function and the gluon propagator get enhanced (suppressed) at low momentum. For larger momenta no dependence on Gribov copies is seen. We compare our lattice data to the corresponding (decoupling) solutions from the DSE/FRGE study of Fischer, Maas and Pawlowski [Annals Phys. 324 (2009) 2408] an…
The question of whether confining effects are visible in correlation functions is a long-standing one. Complementing investigations on the propagators of fundamental and adjoint scalar matter particles here the quenched scalar-gluon vertex is investigated. For this purpose a multitude of lattice setups in two, three, and four dimensions is analyzed in quenched SU(2) lattice gauge theory. Though both cases are quantitatively different, neither a qualitative difference nor any singularities are observed.
The compatibility of the results from the Gribov-Zwanziger tree level prediction and lattice simulations, using large statistical ensembles, for the Landau gauge gluon propagator are investigated, thereby complementing earlier work using small-scale statistics. Our results show that the data is well described by the tree level estimate only up to momenta $p \lesssim 1$ GeV while clearly favoring the so-called Refined Gribov-Zwanziger scenario, implying particular relations between certain possible $d=2$ condensates. We also provide a global fit of the lattice data which interpolates between th…
