1,943 research outputs found
On dynamical gluon mass generation
The effective gluon propagator constructed with the pinch technique is
governed by a Schwinger-Dyson equation with special structure and gauge
properties, that can be deduced from the correspondence with the background
field method. Most importantly the non-perturbative gluon self-energy is
transverse order-by-order in the dressed loop expansion, and separately for
gluonic and ghost contributions, a property which allows for a meanigfull
truncation. A linearized version of the truncated Schwinger-Dyson equation is
derived, using a vertex that satisfies the required Ward identity and contains
massless poles. The resulting integral equation, subject to a properly
regularized constraint, is solved numerically, and the main features of the
solutions are briefly discussed.Comment: Special Article - QNP2006: 4th International Conference on Quarks and
Nuclear Physics, Madrid, Spain, 5-10 June 200
Center vortices and confinement vs. screening
We study adjoint and fundamental Wilson loops in the center-vortex picture of
confinement, for gauge group SU(N) with general N. There are N-1 distinct
vortices, whose properties, including collective coordinates and actions, we
study. In d=2 we construct a center-vortex model by hand so that it has a
smooth large-N limit of fundamental-representation Wilson loops and find, as
expected, confinement. Extending an earlier work by the author, we construct
the adjoint Wilson-loop potential in this d=2 model for all N, as an expansion
in powers of , where is the vortex density per unit area and M
is the vortex inverse size, and find, as expected, screening. The leading term
of the adjoint potential shows a roughly linear regime followed by string
breaking when the potential energy is about 2M. This leading potential is a
universal (N-independent at fixed fundamental string tension ) of the form
, where R is the spacelike dimension of a rectangular Wilson
loop. The linear-regime slope is not necessarily related to by Casimir
scaling. We show that in d=2 the dilute vortex model is essentially equivalent
to true d=2 QCD, but that this is not so for adjoint representations; arguments
to the contrary are based on illegal cumulant expansions which fail to
represent the necessary periodicity of the Wilson loop in the vortex flux. Most
of our arguments are expected to hold in d=3,4 also.Comment: 29 pages, LaTex, 1 figure. Minor changes; references added;
discussion of factorization sharpened. Major conclusions unchange
Power-law running of the effective gluon mass
The dynamically generated effective gluon mass is known to depend
non-trivially on the momentum, decreasing sufficiently fast in the deep
ultraviolet, in order for the renormalizability of QCD to be preserved. General
arguments based on the analogy with the constituent quark masses, as well as
explicit calculations using the operator-product expansion, suggest that the
gluon mass falls off as the inverse square of the momentum, relating it to the
gauge-invariant gluon condensate of dimension four. In this article we
demonstrate that the power-law running of the effective gluon mass is indeed
dynamically realized at the level of the non-perturbative Schwinger-Dyson
equation. We study a gauge-invariant non-linear integral equation involving the
gluon self-energy, and establish the conditions necessary for the existence of
infrared finite solutions, described in terms of a momentum-dependent gluon
mass. Assuming a simplified form for the gluon propagator, we derive a
secondary integral equation that controls the running of the mass in the deep
ultraviolet. Depending on the values chosen for certain parameters entering
into the Ansatz for the fully-dressed three-gluon vertex, this latter equation
yields either logarithmic solutions, familiar from previous linear studies, or
a new type of solutions, displaying power-law running. In addition, it
furnishes a non-trivial integral constraint, which restricts significantly (but
does not determine fully) the running of the mass in the intermediate and
infrared regimes. The numerical analysis presented is in complete agreement
with the analytic results obtained, showing clearly the appearance of the two
types of momentum-dependence, well-separated in the relevant space of
parameters. Open issues and future directions are briefly discussed.Comment: 37 pages, 5 figure
Center Vortices, Nexuses, and Fractional Topological Charge
It has been remarked in several previous works that the combination of center
vortices and nexuses (a nexus is a monopole-like soliton whose world line
mediates certain allowed changes of field strengths on vortex surfaces) carry
topological charge quantized in units of 1/N for gauge group SU(N). These
fractional charges arise from the interpretation of the standard topological
charge integral as a sum of (integral) intersection numbers weighted by certain
(fractional) traces. We show that without nexuses the sum of intersection
numbers gives vanishing topological charge (since vortex surfaces are closed
and compact). With nexuses living as world lines on vortices, the contributions
to the total intersection number are weighted by different trace factors, and
yield a picture of the total topological charge as a linking of a closed nexus
world line with a vortex surface; this linking gives rise to a non-vanishing
but integral topological charge. This reflects the standard 2\pi periodicity of
the theta angle. We argue that the Witten-Veneziano relation, naively violating
2\pi periodicity, scales properly with N at large N without requiring 2\pi N
periodicity. This reflects the underlying composition of localized fractional
topological charge, which are in general widely separated. Some simple models
are given of this behavior. Nexuses lead to non-standard vortex surfaces for
all SU(N) and to surfaces which are not manifolds for N>2. We generalize
previously-introduced nexuses to all SU(N) in terms of a set of fundamental
nexuses, which can be distorted into a configuration resembling the 't
Hooft-Polyakov monopole with no strings. The existence of localized but
widely-separated fractional topological charges, adding to integers only on
long distance scales, has implications for chiral symmetry breakdown.Comment: 15 pages, revtex, 6 .eps figure
On the center-vortex baryonic area law
We correct an unfortunate error in an earlier work of the author, and show
that in center-vortex QCD (gauge group SU(3)) the baryonic area law is the
so-called law, described by a minimal area with three surfaces spanning the
three quark world lines and meeting at a central Steiner line joining the two
common meeting points of the world lines. (The earlier claim was that this area
law was a so-called law, involving three extremal areas spanning the
three pairs of quark world lines.) We give a preliminary discussion of the
extension of these results to . These results are based on the
(correct) baryonic Stokes' theorem given in the earlier work claiming a
law. The -form area law for SU(3) is in agreement with the most
recent lattice calculations.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX4, 5 .eps figure
Nexus solitons in the center vortex picture of QCD
It is very plausible that confinement in QCD comes from linking of Wilson
loops to finite-thickness vortices with magnetic fluxes corresponding to the
center of the gauge group. The vortices are solitons of a gauge-invariant QCD
action representing the generation of gluon mass. There are a number of other
solitonic states of this action. We discuss here what we call nexus solitons,
in which for gauge group SU(N), up to N vortices meet a a center, or nexus,
provided that the total flux of the vortices adds to zero (mod N). There are
fundamentally two kinds of nexuses: Quasi-Abelian, which can be described as
composites of Abelian imbedded monopoles, whose Dirac strings are cancelled by
the flux condition; and fully non-Abelian, resembling a deformed sphaleron.
Analytic solutions are available for the quasi-Abelian case, and we discuss
variational estimates of the action of the fully non-Abelian nexus solitons in
SU(2). The non-Abelian nexuses carry Chern-Simons number (or topological charge
in four dimensions). Their presence does not change the fundamentals of
confinement in the center-vortex picture, but they may lead to a modified
picture of the QCD vacuum.Comment: LateX, 24 pages, 2 .eps figure
Center Vortices, Nexuses, and the Georgi-Glashow Model
In a gauge theory with no Higgs fields the mechanism for confinement is by
center vortices, but in theories with adjoint Higgs fields and generic symmetry
breaking, such as the Georgi-Glashow model, Polyakov showed that in d=3
confinement arises via a condensate of 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles. We study
the connection in d=3 between pure-gauge theory and the theory with adjoint
Higgs by varying the Higgs VEV v. As one lowers v from the Polyakov semi-
classical regime v>>g (g is the gauge coupling) toward zero, where the unbroken
theory lies, one encounters effects associated with the unbroken theory at a
finite value v\sim g, where dynamical mass generation of a gauge-symmetric
gauge- boson mass m\sim g^2 takes place, in addition to the Higgs-generated
non-symmetric mass M\sim vg. This dynamical mass generation is forced by the
infrared instability (in both 3 and 4 dimensions) of the pure-gauge theory. We
construct solitonic configurations of the theory with both m,M non-zero which
are generically closed loops consisting of nexuses (a class of soliton recently
studied for the pure-gauge theory), each paired with an antinexus, sitting like
beads on a string of center vortices with vortex fields always pointing into
(out of) a nexus (antinexus); the vortex magnetic fields extend a transverse
distance 1/m. An isolated nexus with vortices is continuously deformable from
the 't Hooft-Polyakov (m=0) monopole to the pure-gauge nexus-vortex complex
(M=0). In the pure-gauge M=0 limit the homotopy (or its
analog for SU(N)) of the 't Hooft monopoles is no longer applicable, and is
replaced by the center-vortex homotopy .Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, 3 .eps figure
On a class of embeddings of massive Yang-Mills theory
A power-counting renormalizable model into which massive Yang-Mills theory is
embedded is analyzed. The model is invariant under a nilpotent BRST
differential s. The physical observables of the embedding theory, defined by
the cohomology classes of s in the Faddeev-Popov neutral sector, are given by
local gauge-invariant quantities constructed only from the field strength and
its covariant derivatives.Comment: LATEX, 34 pages. One reference added. Version published in the
journa
Fixed points and vacuum energy of dynamically broken gauge theories
We show that if a gauge theory with dynamical symmetry breaking has
non-trivial fixed points, they will correspond to extrema of the vacuum energy.
This relationship provides a different method to determine fixed points.Comment: 17 pages, uuencoded latex file, 3 figures, uses epsf and epsfig.
Submitted to Mod. Phys. Lett.
Static three- and four-quark potentials
We present results for the static three- and four-quark potentials in SU(3)
and SU(4) respectively. Using a variational approach, combined with multi-hit
for the time-like links, we determine the ground state of the baryonic string
with sufficient accuracy to test the and ans\"atze for the
baryonic Wilson area law. Our results favor the ansatz, where the
potential is the sum of two-body terms.Comment: Lattice2001(heavyquark
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