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 not compatible with a massive type propagator with a constant mass. The scenario of a momentum dependent gluon mass gives a decreasing mass with the momentum, which vanishes in the deep ultraviolet region. Furthermore, we show that the functional forms used to describe the decoupling like solution of the Dyson-Schwinger equations are compatible with the lattice data with similar mass scales.
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.
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.
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…
We calculate the three-point functions of pure Landau gauge QCD and investigate their influence on the propagators. As expected, the ghost-gluon vertex leads only to minor modifications, while the three-gluon vertex has a sizeable impact on the mid-momentum regime of the gluon propagator. We describe an effective model of the three-gluon vertex that includes contributions from the neglected two-loop diagrams and thus allows to obtain propagators in good agreement with lattice results. We also determine the three-gluon vertex from these propagators and find good agreement with lattice results a…
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.
We present an analytic description of numerical results for the ghost propagator G(p^2) in minimal Landau gauge on the lattice. The data were produced in the SU(2) case using the largest lattice volumes to date, for d = 2, 3 and 4 space-time dimensions. Our proposed form for G(p^2) is derived from the one-loop relation between ghost and gluon propagators, considering a tree-level ghost-gluon vertex and our previously obtained gluon-propagator results \cite{Cucchieri:2011ig}. Although this one-loop expression is not a good description of the data, it leads to a one-parameter fit of our ghost-pr…
We prove that the Faddeev-Popov ghost dressing function in the Yang-Mills theory is non-zero and finite in the limit of vanishing momenta and hence the ghost propagator behaves like free in the deep infrared regime, within the Gribov-Zwanziger framework of the $D$-dimensional SU(N) Yang-Mills theory in the Landau gauge for any $D>2$. This result implies that the Kugo-Ojima color confinement criterion is not satisfied in its original form. We point out that the result crucially depends on the explicit form of the non-local horizon term adopted. The original Gribov prediction in the Landau gauge…
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 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.
We solve the Dyson-Schwinger equations of the ghost and gluon propagators of Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory together with that of the ghost-gluon vertex. The latter plays a central role in many truncation schemes for functional equations. By including it dynamically we can determine its influence on the propagators. We also suggest a new model for the three-gluon vertex motivated by lattice data which plays a crucial role to obtain stable solutions when the ghost-gluon vertex is included. We find that both vertices have a sizable quantitative impact on the mid-momentum regime and contribute to…
We study analytic structures of the gluon, quark, and ghost propagators in the Landau-gauge QCD and general properties from the existence of unusual singularities. First, we investigate analytic structures of the QCD propagators using the massive Yang-Mills model, in which the one-loop gluon and ghost propagators are in good agreement with the numerical lattice results in the Landau gauge. We find that both gluon and quark propagators in this model have complex poles that invalidate the usual spectral representation. Second, we discuss general properties of propagators in the presence of such …
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.
Yang-Mills theory can be formulated for any semi-simple Lie algebra, and thus any semi-simple Lie group. In principle, the dynamics could be different for each one. However, functional studies predict that the propagators in Landau gauge depend only quantitatively on the gauge algebra. In particular, genuine non-perturbative effects should be present even in the large N-limit for su(N) gauge algebras. Lattice gauge theory is used to investigate this in detail. The propagators are determined for the gauge groups SU(2), SU(3), SU(4), SU(5), SU(6) and G2, in two and three dimensions. In accordanc…
We calculate the lattice quark propagator in Coulomb gauge both from dynamical and quenched configurations. We show that in the continuum limit both the static and full quark propagator are multiplicatively renormalizable. From the propagator we extract the quark renormalization function Z(|p|) and the running mass M(|p|) and extrapolate the latter to the chiral limit. We find that M(|p|) practically coincides with the corresponding Landau gauge function for small momenta. The computation of M(|p|) can be however made more efficient in Coulomb gauge; this can lead to a better determination of …
The analytic structure of the 2 flavour full QCD lattice Landau gauge quark propagator is investigated with Padé approximants applied to its vector and scalar form factors. No poles at complex momentum are observed for the propagator. Moreover, there is clear evidence of a pole at real on-axis negative Euclidean momentum, i.e. for Minkowski type of momentum. %, with a positive residuum. This pole occurs at Euclidean momenta $p^2 \sim - 300$ MeV and it reproduces typical quark mass values used in phenomenological effective quark models. The Padé approximant analysis also gives hints on the pres…
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.
Fixing a gauge in the non-perturbative domain of Yang-Mills theory is a non-trivial problem due to the presence of Gribov copies. In particular, there are different gauges in the non-perturbative regime which all correspond to the same definition of a gauge in the perturbative domain. Gauge-dependent correlation functions may differ in these gauges. Two such gauges are the minimal and absolute Landau gauge, both corresponding to the perturbative Landau gauge. These, and their numerical implementation, are described and presented in detail. Other choices will also be discussed. This investigati…
We report on a study of the analytical structure of the Landau gauge gluon, ghost and quark propagators taken from lattice simulations using large physical volumes, to better access the IR region, and large gauge ensembles to reduce the statistical uncertainties. The investigation uses Padé approximants to look at poles and branch cuts for each of the propagators. For the gluon propagator we identify complex conjugate poles and a branch point. For the ghost propagator the procedure identifies a pole at zero momentum and a branch point for Minkowski-like momenta. The quark propagator appears to…
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 $T$.
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.
G_2 Yang--Mills theory is an interesting laboratory to investigate non-perturbative effects. On one hand, no conventional quark confinement via a linearly rising potential is present. On the other hand, its thermodynamic properties are similar to ordinary SU(N) Yang--Mills theory. Finally, it has been conjectured that gluons are removed from the physical spectrum in the same way as in SU(N) Yang--Mills theory. The last claim will be explored by determining the Landau-gauge ghost and gluon propagators, as well as the Faddeev--Popov operator eigenspectrum, in G_2 lattice gauge theory in two and …
The Bose-ghost propagator has been proposed as a carrier of the confining force in Yang-Mills theories in minimal Landau gauge. We present the first numerical evaluation of this propagator, using lattice simulations for the SU(2) gauge group in the scaling region. Our data are well described by a simple fitting function, which is compatible with an infrared-enhanced Bose-ghost propagator. This function can also be related to a massive gluon propagator in combination with an infrared-free (Faddeev-Popov) ghost propagator. Since the Bose-ghost propagator can be written as the vacuum expectation …
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 investigate the temperature dependence of the Landau gauge gluon and ghost propagators in lattice QCD with two flavors of maximally twisted mass fermions. For these propagators we provide and analyze data which corresponds to pion mass values between 300 and 500 MeV. For the gluon propagator we find that both the longitudinal and transversal component change smoothly in the crossover region, while the ghost propagator exhibits only a very weak temperature dependence. For momenta between 0.4 and 3.0 GeV we give a parametrization for our lattice data. It may serve as input to studies which em…
Recent lattice data have reported an infrared suppressed, positivity violating gluon propagator which is nonvanishing at zero momentum and a ghost propagator which is no longer enhanced. This paper discusses how to obtain analytical results which are in qualitative agreement with these lattice data within the Gribov-Zwanziger framework. This framework allows one to take into account effects related to the existence of gauge copies, by restricting the domain of integration in the path integral to the Gribov region. We elaborate to great extent on a previous short paper by presenting additional …
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…
The infrared behavior of the quark propagator is studied at one loop and in the Landau gauge ($ξ=0$) using the screened massive expansion of full QCD and three different resummation schemes for the quark self-energy. The shift of the expansion point of perturbation theory, which defines the screened expansion, together with a non-standard renormalization of the bare parameters, proves sufficient to describe the dynamical generation of an infrared quark mass also in the chiral limit. Analytically, the scale for such a mass is set by a mass parameter $M$, whose value is fixed by a fit to the lat…
We study the Landau gauge quark propagator, at finite temperature, using quenched lattice simulations. Special focus is given to the behaviour of the momentum space form factors across the confinement-deconfinement phase transition.
We present a review of our numerical studies of the running coupling constant, gluon and ghost propagators, ghost-gluon vertex and ghost condensate for the case of pure SU(2) lattice gauge theory in the minimal Landau gauge. Emphasis is given to the infrared regime, in order to investigate the confinement mechanisms of QCD. We compare our results to other theoretical and phenomenological studies.
We present a current summary of a program to study the quark propagator using lattice QCD. We use the Overlap and ``Asqtad'' quark actions on a number of lattice ensembles to assess systematic errors. We comment on the place of this work amongst studies of QCD Green's functions in other formulations. A preliminary calculation of the running quark mass is presented.
The quark propagator at finite temperature is investigated using quenched gauge configurations. The propagator form factors are investigated for temperatures above and below the gluon deconfinement temperature $T_c$ and for the various Matsubara frequencies. Significant differences between the functional behaviour below and above $T_c$ are observed both for the quark wave function and the running quark mass. The results for the running quark mass indicate a strong link between gluon dynamics, the mechanism for chiral symmetry breaking and the deconfinement mechanism. For temperatures above $T_…
It is a long-standing question whether the confinement of matter fields in QCD has an imprint in the (gauge-dependent) correlation functions, especially the propagators. In particular in the quenched case a fundamental difference could be expected between adjoint and fundamental matter. In a preceding investigation the propagator of a fundamental scalar has been studied, showing no obvious sign of confinement. Here, complementary, the adjoint scalar propagator is investigated over a wide range of parameters in the minimal Landau gauge using lattice gauge theory. This study is performed in two,…
Lattice gluon propagators are studied using tadpole and Symanzik improved gauge action in Landau gauge. The study is performed using anisotropic lattices with asymmetric volumes. The Landau gauge dressing function for the gluon propagator measured on the lattice is fitted according to a leading power behavior: $Z(q^2)\simeq (q^2)^{2κ}$ with an exponent $κ$ at small momenta. The gluon propagators are also fitted using other models and the results are compared. Our result is compatible with a finite gluon propagator at zero momentum in Landau gauge.
Beyond perturbation theory the number of gauge copies drastically increases due to the Gribov-Singer ambiguity. Any way of treating them defines, in principle, a new, non-perturbative gauge, and the gauge-dependent correlation functions can vary between them. Herein various such gauges will be constructed as completions of the Landau gauge inside the first Gribov region. The dependence of the propagators and the running coupling on these gauges will be studied for SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in two, three, and four dimensions using lattice gauge theory, and for a wide range of lattice parameters. …
The gluon propagator in the Landau gauge lattice QCD simulation of quenched 8^3 x 16 lattice is measured. The data suggests the confinement mechanism of the Gribov-Zwanziger theory.
The Landau gauge quark propagator in momentum space is investigated using the O(a)-improved Sheikholeslami--Wohlert (SW) quark action with a tree-level mean-field improved coefficient c_sw. We have studied the unimproved definition of the quark propagator, as well as two different tree-level O(a)-improved propagators. The ultraviolet behavior of the free lattice propagator is studied for each of these in order to establish which of them provides the most reliable description of the quark propagator up to the medium momentum regime. A general method of tree-level correction is introduced. This …
Recent numerical studies of the gluon propagator in the minimal Landau and Coulomb gauges in space-time dimension 2, 3, and 4 pose a challenge to the Gribov confinement scenario. We prove, without approximation, that for these gauges, the continuum gluon propagator $D(k)$ in SU(N) gauge theory satisfies the bound ${d-1 \over d} {1 \over (2 π)^d} \int d^dk {D(k) \over k^2} \leq N$. This holds for Landau gauge, in which case $d$ is the dimension of space-time, and for Coulomb gauge, in which case $d$ is the dimension of ordinary space and $D(k)$ is the instantaneous spatial gluon propagator. Thi…
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 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…
We analyze data from finite-temperature simulations of the gluon propagator in SU(2) Landau gauge on large lattices. We argue that the singular behavior of this quantity around the deconfinement transition, seen in several previous studies, is a lattice artifact.
We study the Landau gauge gluon propagator at zero and finite temperature using lattice simulations. Particular attention is given to the finite size effects and to the infrared behaviour.
The Dyson-Schwinger equations of Landau-gauge Yang-Mills theory for the gluon and ghost propagators are investigated. Numerical results are obtained within a truncation scheme which has proven to be successful at vanishing temperature. For temperatures up to 250 MeV we find only minor quantitative changes in the infrared behaviour of the gluon and ghost propagators. The effective action calculated from these propagators is temperature-independent within the numerical uncertainty.
We report on the infrared behaviour of the lattice gluon propagator. The bounds on D(0) and their behaviour with the lattice volume are investigated, together with the full propagator. Moreover, a study of the gluon propagator using different lattice spacings is carried out.
We perform lattice simulations in pure-SU(2) Yang-Mills theory to investigate how the infrared behavior of electric and magnetic gluon propagators in Landau gauge is affected by temperature. We consider the largest lattices to date, in an attempt to keep systematic errors under control. Electric and magnetic screening masses are calculated through an Ansatz from the zero-temperature case, based on complex-conjugate poles for the momentum-space propagators. As recently reported in [1], we find good fits to the proposed form at all temperatures considered, with different ratios of real to imagin…
Infrared features of the ghost propagator of color diagonal and color antisymmetric ghost propagator of quenched SU(2) and quenched SU(3) are compared with those of unquenched Kogut-Susskind fermion SU(3) lattice Landau gauge. We compare 1) the fluctuation of the ghost propagator, 2) the ghost condensate parameter $v$ of the local composite operator (LCO) approach and 3) the Binder cumulant of color anti-symmetric ghost propagator between quenched and unquenched configurations.
The coupled Dyson-Schwinger equations for the gluon and ghost propagators are investigated in the Landau gauge using a two-loop improved truncation that preserves the multiplicative renormalizability of the propagators. In this truncation all diagrams contribute to the leading order infrared analysis. The infrared contributions of the nonperturbative two-loop diagrams to the gluon vacuum polarization are computed analytically, and this reveals that infrared power behaved propagator solutions only exist when the squint diagram contribution is taken into account. For small momenta the gluon and …
The infrared behavior of the gluon propagator is directly related to confinement in QCD. Indeed, the Gribov-Zwanziger scenario of confinement predicts an infrared vanishing (transverse) gluon propagator in Landau-like gauges, implying violation of reflection positivity and gluon confinement. Finite-volume effects make it very difficult to observe (in the minimal Landau gauge) an infrared suppressed gluon propagator in lattice simulations of the four-dimensional case. Here we report results for the SU(2) gluon propagator in a gauge that interpolates between the minimal Landau gauge (for gauge p…
We present results for the lattice quark propagator in both Landau and Laplacian gauges using standard and improved staggered quark actions. The standard Kogut-Susskind action has errors of \oa{2} while the improved ``Asqtad'' action has \oa{4}, \oag{2}{2} errors. This improvement is seen in the quark propagator. We demonstrate the application of tree-level corrections to these actions and see that Landau and Laplacian gauges produce very similar results.
We report on the lattice quark propagator using standard and improved Staggered quark actions, with the standard, Wilson gauge action. The standard Kogut-Susskind action has errors of \oa{2} while the ``Asqtad'' action has \oa{4}, \oag{2}{2} errors. The quark propagator is interesting for studying the phenomenon of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and as a test-bed for improvement. Gauge dependent quantities from lattice simulations may be affected by Gribov copies. We explore this by studying the quark propagator in both Landau and Laplacian gauges. Landau and Laplacian gauges are found to …
From first principles, using a screened expansion, a simple one-loop analytical expression is provided for the ghost propagator of pure SU(3) Yang-Mills theory in a generic linear covariant gauge. At variance with the Landau gauge, the ghost dressing function is suppressed in the infrared and vanishes at $p=0$, as predicted by other approaches in the continuum. However, in the very limited range where lattice data are available no detectable deviation is found from the Landau gauge, thus reconciling some recent lattice data and previous continuum predictions.
On the lattice we study the gauge boson propagator of three dimensional compact QED in Landau gauge at zero and non-zero temperature. The non-perturbative effects are taken into account by the generation of a mass, by an anomalous dimension and by the photon wave function renormalization. All these effects can be attributed to the monopoles: they are absent in the propagator of the singularity-free part of the gauge field. We assess carefully the Gribov copy problem for the propagator and the parameters emerging from the fits.
The ghost and gluon propagator and the ghost-gluon and three-gluon vertex of two-dimensional SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in (minimal) Landau gauge are studied using lattice gauge theory. It is found that the results are qualitatively similar to the ones in three and four dimensions. The propagators and the Faddeev-Popov operator behave as expected from the Gribov-Zwanziger scenario. In addition, finite volume effects affecting these Green's functions are investigated systematically. The critical infrared exponents of the propagators, as proposed in calculations using stochastic quantization and Dy…
We present a numerical study of the gluon propagator in lattice Landau gauge for three-dimensional pure-SU(2) lattice gauge theory at couplings beta = 4.2, 5.0, 6.0 and for lattice volumes V = 40^3, 80^3, 140^3. In the limit of large V we observe a decreasing gluon propagator for momenta smaller than p_{dec} = 350^{+ 100}_{- 50} MeV. Data are well fitted by Gribov-like formulae and seem to indicate an infra-red critical exponent kappa slightly above 0.6, in agreement with recent analytic results.
The behavior of the Landau gauge gluon and ghost propagators is studied in pure SU(3) gauge theory at non-zero temperature on the lattice. We concentrate on the momentum range [0.6, 2.0] GeV. For the longitudinal as well as for the transverse component of the gluon propagator we extract the continuum limit. We demonstrate the smallness of finite-size and Gribov-copy effects at temperatures close to the deconfinement phase transition at T=T_c and within the restricted range of momenta. Since the longitudinal component D_L(q) turns out to be most sensitive with respect to the phase transition we…
We report on the lattice computation of the quark propagator at finite temperature in the Landau gauge, using quenched gauge configurations. The propagator form factors are computed for various temperatures, above and below the gluon deconfinement temperature $T_c$, and for all the Matsubara frequencies. Our results suggest a strong connection between quark and gluon deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration above $T_c$.
We discuss a non-perturbative lattice calculation of the ghost and gluon propagators in the pure Yang-Mills theory in Landau gauge. The ultraviolet behaviour is checked up to NNNLO yielding the value $Λ^{n_f=0}_{\ms}=269(5)^{+12}_{-9}\text{MeV}$, and we show that lattice Green functions satisfy the complete Schwinger-Dyson equation for the ghost propagator for all considered momenta. The study of the above propagators at small momenta showed that the infrared divergence of the ghost propagator is enhanced, whereas the gluon propagator seem to remain finite and non-zero. The result for the ghos…
Quarks in the adjoint representation have been a subject of study for both conceptual and practical purposes. Conceptually, their differences when it comes to confining and chiral symmetry properties has long been suspected to hold important information on the relation of these two distinguished properties of QCD-like gauge theories. Practically, they have been studied as both a possibility to access finite density quark systems as well as candidate theories for technicolor in beyond-the-standard-model settings. The most elementary object describing such particles is their propagator, though i…
