The infrared fixed point of Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory: A renormalization group analysis

The infrared behavior of gluon and ghost propagators in Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory has been at the center of an intense debate over the last decade. Different solutions of the Dyson-Schwinger equations show a different behavior of the propagators in the infrared: in the so-called scaling solutions both propagators follow a power law, while in the decoupling solutions the gluon propagator shows a massive behavior. The latest lattice results favor the decoupling solutions. In this contribution, after giving a brief overview of the present status of analytical and semi-analytical approaches to the infrared regime of Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory, we will show how Callan-Symanzik renormalization group equations in an epsilon expansion reproduce both types of solutions and single out the decoupling solutions as the infrared-stable ones for space-time dimensions greater than two, in agreement with the lattice calculations.Comment: 17 pages. Talk delivered at the XIII Mexican Workshop on Particles and Fields in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, October 2011. Slightly extended version of the contribution to the conference proceeding

Effective action for the order parameter of the deconfinement transition of Yang-Mills theories

The effective action for the Polyakov loop serving as an order parameter for deconfinement is obtained in one-loop approximation to second order in a derivative expansion. The calculation is performed in $d\geq 4$ dimensions, mostly referring to the gauge group SU(2). The resulting effective action is only capable of describing a deconfinement phase transition for $d>d_{\text{cr}}\simeq 7.42$. Since, particularly in $d=4$, the system is strongly governed by infrared effects, it is demonstrated that an additional infrared scale such as an effective gluon mass can change the physical properties of the system drastically, leading to a model with a deconfinement phase transition.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, minor improvements, version to appear in PR

A non-perturbative study of matter field propagators in Euclidean Yang-Mills theory in linear covariant, Curci-Ferrari and maximal Abelian gauges

In this work, we study the propagators of matter fields within the framework of the Refined Gribov-Zwanziger theory, which takes into account the effects of the Gribov copies in the gauge-fixing quantization procedure of Yang-Mills theory. In full analogy with the pure gluon sector of the Refined Gribov-Zwanziger action, a non-local long-range term in the inverse of the Faddeev-Popov operator is added in the matter sector. Making use of the recent BRST invariant formulation of the Gribov-Zwanziger framework achieved in [Capri et al 2016], the propagators of scalar and quark fields in the adjoint and fundamental representations of the gauge group are worked out explicitly in the linear covariant, Curci-Ferrari and maximal Abelian gauges. Whenever lattice data are available, our results exhibit good qualitative agreement.Comment: 27 pages, no figures; V2, minor modifications, to appear in EPJ

Exact Results in Gauge Theories: Putting Supersymmetry to Work. The 1999 Sakurai Prize Lecture

Powerful methods based on supersymmetry allow one to find exact solutions to certain problems in strong coupling gauge theories. The inception of some of these methods (holomorphy in the gauge coupling and other chiral parameters, in conjunction with instanton calculations) dates back to the 1980's. I describe the early exact results -- the calculation of the beta function and the gluino condensate -- and their impact on the subsequent developments. A brief discussion of the recent breakthrough discoveries where these results play a role is given.Comment: Based on the talk at the Centennial Meeting of The American Physical Society, March 20-26, Atlanta, GA. LaTex (uses sprocl.sty), 36 pages, 5 eps figures include

How higher-spin gravity surpasses the spin two barrier: no-go theorems versus yes-go examples

Aiming at non-experts, we explain the key mechanisms of higher-spin extensions of ordinary gravity. We first overview various no-go theorems for low-energy scattering of massless particles in flat spacetime. In doing so we dress a dictionary between the S-matrix and the Lagrangian approaches, exhibiting their relative advantages and weaknesses, after which we high-light potential loop-holes for non-trivial massless dynamics. We then review positive yes-go results for non-abelian cubic higher-derivative vertices in constantly curved backgrounds. Finally we outline how higher-spin symmetry can be reconciled with the equivalence principle in the presence of a cosmological constant leading to the Fradkin--Vasiliev vertices and Vasiliev's higher-spin gravity with its double perturbative expansion (in terms of numbers of fields and derivatives).Comment: LaTeX, 50 pages, minor changes, many refs added; version accepted for publication in Reviews of Modern Physic

A Center-Symmetric 1/N Expansion

The free energy of U(N) gauge theory is expanded about a center-symmetric topological background configuration with vanishing action and vanishing Polyakov loops. We construct this background for SU(N) lattice gauge theory and show that it uniquely describes center-symmetric minimal action orbits in the limit of infinite lattice volume. The leading contribution to the free energy in the 1/N expansion about this background is of O(N^0) rather than O(N^2) as one finds when the center symmetry is spontaneously broken. The contribution of planar 't Hooft diagrams to the free energy is O(1/N^2) and sub-leading in this case. The change in behavior of the diagrammatic expansion is traced to Linde's observation that the usual perturbation series of non-Abelian gauge theories suffers from severe infrared divergences. This infrared problem does not arise in a center-symmetric expansion. The 't Hooft coupling \lambda=g^2 N is found to decrease proportional to 1/\ln(N) for large N. There is evidence of a vector-ghost in the planar truncation of the model.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures; extended and corrected version with additional material and reference