We use the worldline representation for correlation functions together with numerical path integral methods to extract nonperturbative information about the propagator to all orders in the coupling in the quenched limit (small-$N_{\text{f}}$ expansion). Specifically, we consider a simple two-scalar field theory with cubic interaction (S${}^2$QED) in four dimensions as a toy model for QED-like theories. Using a worldline regularization technique, we are able to analyze the divergence structure of all-order diagrams and to perform the renormalization of the model nonperturbatively. Our method gives us access to a wide range of couplings and coordinate distances. We compute the pole mass of the S${}^2$QED electron and observe sizable nonperturbative effects in the strong-coupling regime arising from the full photon dressing. We also find indications for the existence of a critical coupling where the photon dressing compensates the bare mass such that the electron mass vanishes. The short distance behavior remains unaffected by the photon dressing in accordance with the power-counting structure of the model.
We demonstrate the feasibility of a nonperturbative analysis of quantum field theory in the worldline formalism with the help of an efficient numerical algorithm. In particular, we compute the effective action for a super-renormalizable field theory with cubic scalar interaction in four dimensions in quenched approximation (small-$N_f$ expansion) to all orders in the coupling. We observe that nonperturbative effects exert a strong influence on the infrared behavior, rendering the massless limit well defined in contrast to the perturbative expectation. Our numerical method is based on a direct …
We study the propagator of a colored scalar particle in the background of a non-abelian gauge field using the worldline formalism. It is obtained by considering the open worldline of a scalar particle with extra degrees of freedom needed to take into account the color charge of the particle, which we choose to be in the fundamental representation of the gauge group. Specializing the external gauge field to be given by a sum of plane waves, i.e. a sum of external gluons, we produce a master formula for the scalar propagator with an arbitrary number of gluons directly attached to the scalar line…
We study the nonperturbative gluon and ghost propagators in d=3 Yang-Mills, using the Schwinger-Dyson equations of the pinch technique. The use of the Schwinger mechanism leads to the dynamical generation of a gluon mass, which, in turn, gives rise to an infrared finite gluon propagator and ghost dressing function. The propagators obtained are in very good agreement with the results of SU(2) lattice simulations.
In the first-quantised worldline approach to quantum field theory, a long-standing problem has been to extend this formalism to amplitudes involving open fermion lines while maintaining the efficiency of the well-tested closed-loop case. In the present series of papers, we develop a suitable formalism for the case of quantum electrodynamics in vacuum (part one and two) and in a constant external electromagnetic field (part three), based on second-order fermions and the symbol map. We derive this formalism from standard field theory, but also give an alternative derivation intrinsic to the worl…
We study the Dirac propagator dressed by an arbitrary number $N$ of photons by means of a worldline approach, which makes use of a supersymmetric ${\cal N} = 1$ spinning particle model on the line, coupled to an external Abelian vector field. We obtain a compact off-shell master formula for the tree level scattering amplitudes associated to the dressed Dirac propagator. In particular, unlike in other approaches, we express the particle fermionic degrees of freedom using a coherent state basis, and consider the gauging of the supersymmetry, which ultimately amounts to integrating over a worldli…
We present different non-perturbative calculations within the context of Migdal's representation for the propagator and effective action of quantum particles. We first calculate the exact propagators and effective actions for Dirac, scalar and Proca fields in the presence of constant electromagnetic fields, for an even-dimensional spacetime. Then we derive the propagator for a charged scalar field in a spacelike vortex (i.e., instanton) background, in a long-distance expansion, and the exact propagator for a massless Dirac field in 1+1 dimensions in an arbitrary background. Finally, we present…
In this thesis, several aspects of Yang-Mills theory are studied. It begins with the constrained quantization in the Coulomb gauge, using the Dirac bracket formalism. A nonperturbative analysis of the infrared asymptotics of propagators in any spatial dimension follows, and a connection to the Landau gauge is given. In the Coulomb gauge Hamiltonian approach, a linearly rising static color Coulomb potential is found, along with an infrared diverging gluon energy, both signaling confinement. The propagators and vertices in the entire momentum regime are calculated with the variational principle.…
The nonperturbative probability of pair production in electric fields depending on lightfront time is given exactly by the locally constant approximation. We explain this by showing that the worldline path integral defining the effective action contains a constraint, which localises contributing paths on hypersurfaces of constant lightfront time. These paths are lightfront zero-modes and there can be no pair production without them; the effective action vanishes if they are projected out.
We simplify and generalize an approach proposed by Di Vecchia and Ravndal to describe a massive Dirac particle in external vector and scalar fields. Two different path integral representations for the propagator are derived systematically without the usual five-dimensional extension and shown to be equivalent due to the supersymmetry of the action. They correspond to a projection on the mass of the particle either continuously or at the end of the time evolution. It is shown that the supersymmetry transformations are generated by shifting and scaling the supertimes and the invariant difference…
We show how to do semiclassical nonperturbative computations within the worldline approach to quantum field theory using ``worldline instantons''. These worldline instantons are classical solutions to the Euclidean worldline loop equations of motion, and are closed spacetime loops parametrized by the proper-time. Specifically, we compute the imaginary part of the one loop effective action in scalar QED using ``worldline instantons'', for a wide class of inhomogeneous electric field backgrounds. We treat both time dependent and space dependent electric fields, and note that temporal inhomogenei…
In the first part of this series, we employed the second-order formalism and the ``symbol'' map to construct a particle path-integral representation of the electron propagator in a background electromagnetic field, suitable for open fermion-line calculations. Its main advantages are the avoidance of long products of Dirac matrices, and its ability to unify whole sets of Feynman diagrams related by permutation of photon legs along the fermion lines. We obtained a Bern-Kosower type master formula for the fermion propagator, dressed with $N$ photons, in terms of the ``$N$-photon kernel,'' where t…
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 …
Landau-Khalatnikov-Fradkin Transformations in Reduced Quantum Electrodynamics: Perturbative and Nonperturbative Dynamics of the Fermion Propagator
Quaid-i-Azam University（奎德-e-阿扎姆大学）；Air University（空军大学）；University of the Punjab（旁遮普大学）；Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo（圣尼古拉斯德伊达尔戈米却肯自治大学）；Universidad de Huelva（韦尔瓦大学）；Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro（克雷塔罗自治大学）；Universidad de Sonora（索诺拉大学）
We show that the propagators of gravitons and scalar fields seen by a static patch observer in de Sitter spacetime are controlled by hidden SL(2,R) symmetries, at all frequencies. The retarded Green's function is determined by an SL(2,R) x SL(2,R) action generated by conformal Killing vectors of de Sitter spacetime times a line. This observation uses the fact that the static patch of dS_{d+1} x R is conformal to the hyperbolic patch of AdS_3 x S^{d-1}. The poles of the propagators, the quasinormal frequencies, are generated by associated SL(2,R) actions. The quasinormal mode generating algebra…
Using the effective potential approach for composite operators, we have formulated a general method how to calculate the truly nonperturbative vacuum energy density in the axial gauge QCD quantum models of its ground state. It is defined as integrated out the truly nonperturbative part of the full gluon propagator over the deep infrared region (soft momentum region). The nontrivial minimization procedure makes it possible to determine the value of the soft cutoff in terms of the corresponding nonperturbative scale parameter which is inevitably presented in any nonperturbative model for the ful…
We study the dimensionally regularized fermion propagator Dyson-Schwinger equation in quenched nonperturbative QED in an arbitrary covariant gauge using the Curtis-Pennington vertex and perform nonperturbative renormalization numerically. The nonperturbative fermion propagator is solved in D=4-2*epsilon < 4 dimensional Euclidean space for a large number of values of epsilon for two values of the coupling, alpha=0.6 and alpha=1.5. Results for D=4 are then obtained by extrapolation to epsilon=0. We compare these results against previous studies employing a modified ultraviolet cut-off regulariza…
We study Landau-gauge Yang-Mills theory by means of a nonperturbative vertex expansion of the quantum effective action. Using an exact renormalization group equation, we compute the fully dressed gluon and ghost propagators to lowest nontrivial order in the vertex expansion. In the mid-momentum regime, $p^2\sim\mathcal{O}(1)\text{GeV}^2$, we probe the propagator flow with various {\em ansätze} for the three- and four-point correlations. We analyze the potential of these truncation schemes to generate a nonperturbative scale. We find universal infrared behavior of the propagators, if the gluon …
Using the worldline quantum field theory (WQFT) formalism for classical scattering, we study the deflection of light by a heavy massive spinless/spinning object. WQFT requires the use of the worldline dressed propagator of a photon in a gravitational background, which we construct from first principles. The action required to set up the worldline path integral is constructed using auxiliary variables, which describe dynamically the spin degrees of freedom of the photon and take care of path ordering. We test the fully regulated path integral by recovering the photon--photon-graviton vertex. Wi…
We study the dimensionally regularized fermion propagator Dyson-Schwinger equation in quenched nonperturbative QED. We work in arbitrary covariant gauge and perform nonperturbative renormalization numerically. The nonperturbative fermion propagator is solved in D = 4 - 2 * epsilon dimensional Euclidean space for a large number of values of epsilon. Results for D=4 dimensions are then obtained by extrapolation to epsilon = 0. Here we present results using the Curtis-Penningon fermion-photon proper vertex for two values of the coupling, namely alpha=0.6 and alpha=1.5, and compare these to previo…
The exact nonperturbative confining solutions of the SU(3)-Yang-Mills equations recently obtained by author in Minkowski spacetime with the help of the black hole theory techniques are analysed and on the basis of them the gluon propagator corresponding to linear confinement at large distances (small momenta) is constructed in a nonperturbative way. At small distances (large momenta) the resulting propagator passes on to the standard (nonperturbative) gluon propagator used in the perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The results suggest some scenario of linear confinement for mesons and q…
We exhibit an initial-value formulation of the worldline quantum field theory (WQFT) approach to the classical two-body problem in general relativity. We show that the Schwinger-Keldysh (in-in) formalism leads to purely retarded propagators in the evaluation of observables in the WQFT. Integration technology for retarded master integrals is introduced at third post-Minkowskian (3PM) order. As an application we compute the complete radiation-reacted impulse and radiated four momentum for the scattering of two non-spinning neutron stars including tidal effects at 3PM order, as well as the leadin…
Recently, Gies and Karbstein showed that the two-loop Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian receives a finite one-particle reducible contribution in addition to the well-known one-particle irreducible one. Here, we demonstrate that a similar contribution exists for the propagator in a constant field already at the one-loop level, and we calculate this contribution for the scalar QED case. We also present an independent derivation of the Gies-Karbstein result using the worldline formalism, treating the scalar and spinor QED cases in a unified manner.
We present the detailed derivation of the longitudinal part of the three-gluon vertex from the Slavnov-Taylor identities that it satisfies, by means of a nonperturbative implementation of the Ball-Chiu construction; the latter, in its original form, involves the inverse gluon propagator, the ghost dressing function, and certain form factors of the ghost-gluon kernel. The main conceptual subtlety that renders this endeavor nontrivial is the infrared finiteness of the gluon propagator, and the resulting need to separate the vertex into two pieces, one that is intimately connected with the emerge…
In the dynamically assisted Schwinger mechanism, the pair production probability is significantly enhanced by including a weak, rapidly varying field in addition to a strong, slowly varying field. In a previous paper we showed that several features of dynamical assistance can be understood by a perturbative treatment of the weak field. Here we show how to calculate the prefactors of the higher-orders terms, which is important because the dominant contribution can come from higher orders. We give a new and independent derivation of the momentum spectrum using the worldline formalism, and extend…
The worldline formalism has previously been used for deriving compact master formulas for the one-loop N-photon amplitudes in both scalar and spinor QED, and in the vacuum as well as in a constant external field. For scalar QED, there is also an analogous master formula for the propagator dressed with N photons in the vacuum. Here, we extend this master formula to include a constant field. The two-photon case is worked out explicitly, yielding an integral representation for the Compton scattering cross section in the field suitable for numerical integration in the full range of electric and ma…
We construct a quadratic curvature theory of gravity whose graviton propagator around the Minkowski background respects wordline inversion symmetry, the particle approximation to modular invariance in string theory. This symmetry automatically yields a corresponding gravitational theory that is nonlocal, with the action containing infinite order differential operators. As a consequence, despite being a higher order derivative theory, it is ghost-free and has no degrees of freedom besides the massless spin-$2$ graviton of Einstein's general relativity. By working in the linearised regime we sho…
We propose a regularization-independent method for studying a renormalizable field theory nonperturbatively through its Dyson-Schwinger equations. Using QED_4 as an example, we show how the coupled equations determining the nonperturbative fermion and photon propagators can be written entirely in terms of renormalized quantities, which renders the equations manifestly finite in a regularization-independent manner. As an illustration of the technique, we apply it to a study of the fermion propagator in quenched QED_4 with the Curtis-Pennington electron-photon vertex. At large momenta the mass f…
Some features of the solutions to the truncated Dyson-Schwinger equations(DSEs) for the propagators of QCD in Landau gauge are summarized. In particular, the Kugo-Ojima confinement criterion is realized, and positivity of transverse gluons is manifestly violated in these solutions. In Landau gauge, the gluon-ghost vertex function offers a convenient possibility to define a nonperturbative running coupling. The infrared fixed point obtained from this coupling which determines the 2-point interactions of color-octet quark currents implies the existence of unphysical massless states which are nec…
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 set up an infrared-based moment problem to obtain estimates of the masses of the scalar, pseudoscalar and tensor glueballs in Euclidean Yang-Mills theories using the Refined Gribov-Zwanziger (RGZ) version of the Landau gauge, which takes into account nonperturbative physics related to gauge copies. Employing lattice input for the mass scales of the RGZ gluon propagator, the lowest order moment problem approximation gives the values m_{0++}\approx 1.96 GeV, m_{2++} \approx 2.04 GeV and m_{0-+}\approx 2.19 GeV in the SU(3) case, all within a 20% range of the corresponding lattice values. We a…
The Hopf algebra of undecorated rooted trees has tamed the combinatorics of perturbative contributions, to anomalous dimensions in Yukawa theory and scalar $ϕ^3$ theory, from all nestings and chainings of a primitive self-energy subdivergence. Here we formulate the nonperturbative problems which these resummations approximate. For Yukawa theory, at spacetime dimension $d=4$, we obtain an integrodifferential Dyson-Schwinger equation and solve it parametrically in terms of the complementary error function. For the scalar theory, at $d=6$, the nonperturbative problem is more severe; we transform …
We study unquenched QED in four dimensions using renormalised Schwinger-Dyson equations and focus on the behaviour of the fermion and photon propagators. For this purpose we use an improved Kizilersu-Pennington (KP) vertex which respects gauge invariance, multiplicative renormalizability for the massless case, agrees with perturbation theory in the weak coupling regime and is free of kinematic singularities. We find that the KP vertex performs very well as expected specially in comparison with other vertex choices. We find that the Landau pole problem familiar from perturbative QED persists in…
A non-linear Schwinger-Dyson (SD) equation for the gauge boson propagator of massless QED in one time and two spatial dimensions is studied. It is shown that the nonperturbative solution leads to a nontrivial renormalization-group infrared fixed point quantitatively close to the one found in the leading order of the 1/N expansion, with N the number of fermion flavors. In the gauged Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (GNJL) model an equation for the Yukawa vertex is solved in an approximation given by the one-photon exchange and an analytic expression is derived for the propagator of the scalar fermion-antifer…
We have formulated new quantum model of the QCD vacuum using the effective potential approach for composite operators. It is based on the existence and importance of such kind of the nonperturbative, topologically nontrivial excitations of gluon field configurations, which can be effectively correctly described by the $q^{-4}$-type behavior of the full gluon propagator in the deep infrared domain. The ultraviolet part of the full gluon propagator was approximated by the asymptotic freedom to-leading order perturbative logarithm term of the running coupling constant. Despite the vacuum energy d…
We propose to realize a mass gap in QCD by not imposing the transversality condition on the full gluon self-energy, while preserving the color gauge invariance condition for the full gluon propagator. This is justified by the nonlinear and nonperturbative dynamics of QCD. None of physical observables/processes in low-energy QCD will be directly affected by such a temporary violation of color gauge invariance/symmetry. No truncations/approximations and no special gauge choice are made for the regularized skeleton loop integrals, contributing to the full gluon self-energy, which enters the Schwi…
There has been growing interest in studying the behaviour of QED in its strong coupling limit. The reason for this is not only that it serves as a simple prototype gauge theory for testing nonperturbative calculational techniques which one then goes on to apply to QCD, but also because the theory exhibits interesting behaviour in its own right. In particular, it now appears to be quite well established that QED breaks chiral symmetry dynamically as long as the coupling is sufficiently large. In this contribution we describe the progress made in applying the polaron variational approach to quen…
We apply the worldline formalism to amplitudes in scalar quantum electrodynamics (QED) involving open scalar lines, with an emphasis on their non-perturbative gauge dependence. At the tree-level, we study the scalar propagator interacting with any number of photons in configuration space as well as in momentum space. At one-loop we rederive, in an efficient way, the off-shell vertex in an arbitrary dimension and any covariant gauge. Generalizing the Landau-Khalatnikov-Fradkin transformation (LKFT) for the non-perturbative propagator, we find simple non-perturbative transformation rules for arb…
We study an approximate version of the Schwinger-Dyson equation that controls the nonperturbative behavior of the ghost-gluon vertex, in the Landau gauge. In particular, we focus on the form factor that enters in the dynamical equation for the ghost dressing function, in the same gauge, and derive its integral equation, in the "one-loop dressed" approximation. We consider two special kinematic configurations, which simplify the momentum dependence of the unknown quantity; in particular, we study the soft gluon case, and the well-known Taylor limit. When coupled with the Schwinger-Dyson equatio…
We have considered the two-point correlation of QED in worldline formalism. In position space it has been written in terms of heat kernel. This leads to introducing the $K_1$ function, which is related with the bulk-to-boundary propagator of massless scalar field and to reveal bulk-to-boundary propagator in the expression of photon polarization operator.
We consider a Lorentz-violating modification to the fermionic Lagrangian of QED that is known to produce a finite Chern-Simons term at leading order. We compute the second order correction to the one-loop photon self-energy in the massless case using an exact propagator and a nonperturbative formulation of the theory. This nonperturbative theory assigns a definite value to the coefficient of the induced Chern-Simons term; however, we find that the theory fails to preserve gauge invariance at higher orders. We conclude that the specific nonperturbative value of the Chern-Simons coefficient has …
We propose how to explicitly introduce the Jaffe-Witten mass gap into the quantum Yang-Mills theory. Through the full gluon propagator it is defined as such nonperturbative scale that when it formally goes to zero, then the perturbative phase survives in the theory only. The close link between mass gap and strong infrared singularities which are due to dominated in the QCD vacuum self-interaction of massless gluons is also discussed. This interaction leads thus to the zero momentum modes enhancement effect in the QCD nonperturbative vacuum. Using theory of distributions, we argue that strong n…
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…
The gauge invariant generation of an effective gluon mass proceeds through the well-known Schwinger mechanism, whose key dynamical ingredient is the nonperturbative formation of longitudinally coupled massless bound-state excitations. These excitations introduce poles in the vertices of the theory, in such a way as to maintain the Slavnov-Taylor identities intact in the presence of massive gluon propagators. In the present work we first focus on the modifications induced to the nonperturbative three-gluon vertex by the inclusion of massless two-gluon bound-states into the kernels appearing in …
Using the previously derived confining gluon propagator, the corresponding system of equations determining the quark propagator is derived. The system of equations consists of the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the quark propagator itself, which includes the zero momentum transfer quark-gluon vertex. It is complemented by the Slavnov-Taylor identity for this vertex. The quark equation depends explicitly on the mass gap, determining the scale of the truly nonperturbative dynamics in the QCD ground state. The obtained system of equations is manifestly gauge-invariant, i.e., does not depend explici…
We propose to realize a mass gap in QCD by not imposing the transversality condition on the full gluon self-energy, while preserving the color gauge invariance condition for the full gluon propagator. This is justified by the nonlinear and nonperturbative dynamics of QCD. None of physical observables/processes in low-energy QCD will be directly affected by such a temporary violation of color gauge invariance/symmetry. No truncations/approximations and no special gauge are made for the regularized skeleton loop integrals, contributing to the full gluon self-energy, which enters the Schwinger-Dy…
Starting from the Schwinger--Dyson equation and the renormalization group equation for the massless Wess--Zumino model, we compute the dominant nonperturbative contributions to the anomalous dimension of the theory, which are related by alien calculus to singularities of the Borel transform on integer points. The sum of these dominant contributions has an analytic expression. When applied to the two-point function, this analysis gives a tame evolution in the deep euclidean domain at this approximation level, making doubtful the arguments on the triviality of the quantum field theory with posit…
We study the structure of the gauge propagators of a 3d version of the electroweak interaction in terms of the Higgs vacuum expectation value nu, of the non-Abelian gauge coupling g, and of the Abelian gauge coupling g', when nonperturbative effects related to the non-Abelian gauge fixing are introduced by means of an adapted path integral measure. In the perturbative regime of small non-Abelian coupling g and sufficiently large nu, the well-known standard Z and W propagators are recovered, together with a massless photon. In general, depending on the relative magnitudes of g, g' and nu, we un…
We present a calculation of the electron mass operator combining the bubble-chain photon and the leading order electron propagators in a strong constant crossed electromagnetic field. The photon propagator is obtained by a summation of the Dyson series over 1PI polarization loop insertions and is accounted for in general form. By applying the derived mass operator, we find the bubble-chain electron propagator and the elastic scattering amplitude. The results are expressed in the general form of expansion over $γ$-matrix structures, each multiplied by a scalar invariant function of the electron…
