Circumventing the axial anomalies and the strong CP problem

Many meson processes are related to the U_A(1) axial anomaly, present in the Feynman graphs where fermion loops connect axial vertices with vector vertices. However, the coupling of pseudoscalar mesons to quarks does not have to be formulated via axial vertices. The pseudoscalar coupling is also possible, and this approach is especially natural on the level of the quark substructure of hadrons. In this paper we point out the advantages of calculating these processes using (instead of the anomalous graphs) the graphs where axial vertices are replaced by pseudoscalar vertices. We elaborate especially the case of the processes related to the Abelian axial anomaly of QED, but we speculate that it seems possible that effects of the non-Abelian axial anomaly of QCD can be accounted for in an analogous way.Comment: 13 pages, some typos corrected, published in Prof. D. Tadic's memorial issue of Fizika B, expanded version of hep-ph/051212

A UA(1)U_A(1) symmetry restoration scenario supported by the generalized Witten-Veneziano relation and its analytic solution

The Witten-Veneziano relation, or, alternatively, its generalization proposed by Shore, facilitates understanding and describing the complex of eta and eta' mesons. We present an analytic, closed-form solution to Shore's equations which gives results on the eta-eta' complex in full agreement with results previously obtained numerically. Although the Witten-Veneziano relation and Shore's equations are related, the ways they were previously used in the context of dynamical models to calculate eta and eta' properties, were rather different. However, with the analytic solution, the calculation can be formulated similarly to the approach through the Witten-Veneziano relation, and with some conceptual improvements. In the process, one strengthens the arguments in favor of a possible relation between the U_A(1) and SU_A(3) chiral symmetry breaking and restoration. To test this scenario, the experiments such as those at RHIC, NICA and FAIR, which extend the RHIC (and LHC) high-temperature scans also to the finite-density parts of the QCD phase diagram, should pay particular attention to the signatures from the eta'-eta complex indicating the symmetry restoration.Comment: elsarticle style, 6 page

eta and eta' mesons and dimension 2 gluon condensate <A^2>

The study of light pseudoscalar quark-antiquark bound states in the Dyson-Schwinger approach with the effective QCD coupling enhanced by the interplay of the dimension 2 gluon condensate and dimension 4 gluon condensate , is extended to the eta-eta' complex. We include the effects of the gluon axial anomaly into the Dyson-Schwinger approach to mesons. The calculated masses, mixing and two-photon decay widths of eta and eta' mesons are in agreement with experiment. Also, in a model-independent way, we give the modification of the Gell-Mann--Okubo and Schwinger nonet relations due to the interplay of the gluon anomaly and SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking.Comment: 15 pages, 2 tables, 1 eps figure, revtex