2,087 research outputs found
On The Phase Transition in D=3 Yang-Mills Chern-Simons Gauge Theory
Yang-Mills theory in three dimensions, with a Chern-Simons term of
level (an integer) added, has two dimensionful coupling constants,
and ; its possible phases depend on the size of relative to . For
, this theory approaches topological Chern-Simons theory with no
Yang-Mills term, and expectation values of multiple Wilson loops yield Jones
polynomials, as Witten has shown; it can be treated semiclassically. For ,
the theory is badly infrared singular in perturbation theory, a
non-perturbative mass and subsequent quantum solitons are generated, and Wilson
loops show an area law. We argue that there is a phase transition between these
two behaviors at a critical value of , called , with . Three lines of evidence are given: First, a gauge-invariant one-loop
calculation shows that the perturbative theory has tachyonic problems if .The theory becomes sensible only if there is an additional dynamic
source of gauge-boson mass, just as in the case. Second, we study in a
rough approximation the free energy and show that for there is a
non-trivial vacuum condensate driven by soliton entropy and driving a
gauge-boson dynamical mass , while both the condensate and vanish for . Third, we study possible quantum solitons stemming from an effective
action having both a Chern-Simons mass and a (gauge-invariant) dynamical
mass . We show that if M \gsim 0.5 m, there are finite-action quantum
sphalerons, while none survive in the classical limit , as shown earlier
by D'Hoker and Vinet. There are also quantum topological vortices smoothly
vanishing as .Comment: 36 pages, latex, two .eps and three .ps figures in a gzipped
uuencoded fil
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.
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
Renormalization Group Improved Exponentiation of Soft Gluons in QCD
We extend the methods of Yennie, Frautschi and Suura to QCD for the summation
of soft gluon effects in which infrared singularities are cancelled to all
orders in . An explicit formula for the respective \rngp improved
exponentiated cross section is obtained for q+\bbar{{q'}}\to q+\bbar{{q'}}+
n(G) at SSC energies. Possible applications are discussed.Comment: 7 pages (1 figure not included, available on request) LATEX,
UTHEP-93-040
On the connection between the pinch technique and the background field method
The connection between the pinch technique and the background field method is
further explored. We show by explicit calculations that the application of the
pinch technique in the framework of the background field method gives rise to
exactly the same results as in the linear renormalizable gauges. The general
method for extending the pinch technique to the case of Green's functions with
off-shell fermions as incoming particles is presented. As an example, the
one-loop gauge independent quark self-energy is constructed. We briefly discuss
the possibility that the gluonic Green's functions, obtained by either method,
correspond to physical quantities.Comment: 13 pages and 3 figures, all included in a uuencoded file, to appear
in Physical Review
A conjecture on the infrared structure of the vacuum Schrodinger wave functional of QCD
The Schrodinger wave functional for the d=3+1 SU(N) vacuum is a partition
function constructed in d=4; the exponent 2S in the square of the wave
functional plays the role of a d=3 Euclidean action. We start from a
gauge-invariant conjecture for the infrared-dominant part of S, based on
dynamical generation of a gluon mass M in d=4. We argue that the exact leading
term, of O(M), in an expansion of S in inverse powers of M is a d=3
gauge-invariant mass term (gauged non-linear sigma model); the next leading
term, of O(1/M), is a conventional Yang-Mills action. The d=3 action that is
the sum of these two terms has center vortices as classical solutions. The d=3
gluon mass, which we constrain to be the same as M, and d=3 coupling are
related through the conjecture to the d=4 coupling strength, but at the same
time the dimensionless ratio in d=3 of mass to coupling squared can be
estimated from d=3 dynamics. This allows us to estimate the QCD coupling
in terms of this strictly d=3 ratio; we find a value of about
0.4, in good agreement with an earlier theoretical value but a little low
compared to QCD phenomenology. The wave functional for d=2+1 QCD has an
exponent that is a d=2 infrared-effective action having both the
gauge-invariant mass term and the field strength squared term, and so differs
from the conventional QCD action in two dimensions, which has no mass term.
This conventional d=2 QCD would lead in d=3 to confinement of all color-group
representations. But with the mass term (again leading to center vortices),
N-ality = 0 mod N representations are not confined.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, revtex
Baryon number non-conservation and phase transitions at preheating
Certain inflation models undergo pre-heating, in which inflaton oscillations
can drive parametric resonance instabilities. We discuss several phenomena
stemming from such instabilities, especially in weak-scale models; generically,
these involve energizing a resonant system so that it can evade tunneling by
crossing barriers classically. One possibility is a spontaneous change of phase
from a lower-energy vacuum state to one of higher energy, as exemplified by an
asymmetric double-well potential with different masses in each well. If the
lower well is in resonance with oscillations of the potential, a system can be
driven resonantly to the upper well and stay there (except for tunneling) if
the upper well is not resonant. Another example occurs in hybrid inflation
models where the Higgs field is resonant; the Higgs oscillations can be
transferred to electroweak (EW) gauge potentials, leading to rapid transitions
over sphaleron barriers and consequent B+L violation. Given an appropriate
CP-violating seed, we find that preheating can drive a time-varying condensate
of Chern-Simons number over large spatial scales; this condensate evolves by
oscillation as well as decay into modes with shorter spatial gradients,
eventually ending up as a condensate of sphalerons. We study these examples
numerically and to some extent analytically. The emphasis in the present paper
is on the generic mechanisms, and not on specific preheating models; these will
be discussed in a later paper.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures included, revtex, epsf, references adde
Speculations on Primordial Magnetic Helicity
We speculate that above or just below the electroweak phase transition
magnetic fields are generated which have a net helicity (otherwise said, a
Chern-Simons term) of order of magnitude , where is the
baryon or lepton number today. (To be more precise requires much more knowledge
of B,L-generating mechanisms than we currently have.) Electromagnetic helicity
generation is associated (indirectly) with the generation of electroweak
Chern-Simons number through B+L anomalies. This helicity, which in the early
universe is some 30 orders of magnitude greater than what would be expected
from fluctuations alone in the absence of B+L violation, should be reasonably
well-conserved through the evolution of the universe to around the times of
matter dominance and decoupling, because the early universe is an excellent
conductor. Possible consequences include early structure formation; macroscopic
manifestations of CP violation in the cosmic magnetic field (measurable at
least in principle, if not in practice); and an inverse-cascade dynamo
mechanism in which magnetic fields and helicity are unstable to transfer to
larger and larger spatial scales. We give a quasi-linear treatment of the
general-relativistic MHD inverse cascade instability, finding substantial
growth for helicity of the assumed magnitude out to scales , where is roughly the B+L to photon ratio and
is the magnetic correlation length. We also elaborate further on an
earlier proposal of the author for generation of magnetic fields above the EW
phase transition.Comment: Latex, 23 page
Quantum properties of general gauge theories with composite and external fields
The generating functionals of Green's functions with composite and external
fields are considered in the framework of BV and BLT quantization methods for
general gauge theories. The corresponding Ward identities are derived and the
gauge dependence is investigatedComment: 24 pages, LATEX, slightly changed to clarify the essential new aspect
concerning composite fields depending on external ones; added formulas
showing lack of (generalized) nilpotence of operators appearing in the Ward
identitie
On topological charge carried by nexuses and center vortices
In this paper we further explore the question of topological charge in the
center vortex-nexus picture of gauge theories. Generally, this charge is
locally fractionalized in units of 1/N for gauge group SU(N), but globally
quantized in integral units. We show explicitly that in d=4 global topological
charge is a linkage number of the closed two-surface of a center vortex with a
nexus world line, and relate this linkage to the Hopf fibration, with homotopy
; this homotopy insures integrality of the global
topological charge. We show that a standard nexus form used earlier, when
linked to a center vortex, gives rise naturally to a homotopy , a homotopy usually associated with 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles and similar
objects which exist by virtue of the presence of an adjoint scalar field which
gives rise to spontaneous symmetry breaking. We show that certain integrals
related to monopole or topological charge in gauge theories with adjoint
scalars also appear in the center vortex-nexus picture, but with a different
physical interpretation. We find a new type of nexus which can carry
topological charge by linking to vortices or carry d=3 Chern-Simons number
without center vortices present; the Chern-Simons number is connected with
twisting and writhing of field lines, as the author had suggested earlier. In
general, no topological charge in d=4 arises from these specific static
configurations, since the charge is the difference of two (equal) Chern-Simons
number, but it can arise through dynamic reconnection processes. We complete
earlier vortex-nexus work to show explicitly how to express globally-integral
topological charge as composed of essentially independent units of charge 1/N.Comment: Revtex4; 3 .eps figures; 18 page
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