Mapping String States into Partons: Form Factors and the Hadron Spectrum in AdS/QCD

New developments in holographic QCD are described in this talk in the context of the correspondence between string states in AdS and light-front wavefunctions of hadronic states in physical space-time.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Presented at Seventh Workshop on Continuous Advances in QCD, Minneapolis, May 11-14, 200

Light-Front Holography and QCD Hadronization at the Amplitude Level

Light-front holography allows hadronic amplitudes in the AdS/QCD fifth dimension to be mapped to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time, thus providing a relativistic description of hadrons at the amplitude level. The AdS coordinate z is identified with an invariant light-front coordinate zeta which separates the dynamics of quark and gluon binding from the kinematics of constituent spin and internal orbital angular momentum. The result is a single-variable light-front Schrodinger equation for QCD which determines the eigenspectrum and the light-front wavefunctions of hadrons for general spin and orbital angular momentum. A new method for computing the hadronization of quark and gluon jets at the amplitude level using AdS/QCD light-front wavefunctions is outlined.Comment: Talk presented by SJB at the International Conference on Particles and Nuclei (PANIC08), Eilat, Israel, November 9-14, 200

Light-Front Holography and the Light-Front Schrodinger Equation

One of the most important nonperturbative methods for solving QCD is quantization at fixed light-front time, \tau = t+z/c -- Dirac's "Front Form". The eigenvalues of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian predict the hadron spectrum and the eigensolutions provide the light-front wavefunctions which describe hadron structure. More generally, we show that the valence Fock-state wavefunctions of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian satisfy a single-variable relativistic equation of motion, analogous to the nonrelativistic radial Schr\"odinger equation, with an effective confining potential U which systematically incorporates the effects of higher quark and gluon Fock states. We outline a method for computing the required potential from first principles in QCD. The holographic mapping of gravity in AdS space to QCD, quantized at fixed light-front time, yields the same light front Schr\"odinger equation; in fact, the soft-wall AdS/QCD approach provides a model for the light-front potential which is color-confining and reproduces well the light-hadron spectrum. One also derives via light-front holography a precise relation between the bound-state amplitudes in the fifth dimension of AdS space and the boost-invariant light-front wavefunctions describing the internal structure of hadrons in physical space-time. The elastic and transition form factors of the pion and the nucleons are found to be well described in this framework. The light-front AdS/QCD holographic approach thus gives a frame-independent first approximation of the color-confining dynamics, spectroscopy, and excitation spectra of relativistic light-quark bound states in QCD.Comment: Invited talk, presented by SJB at the QCD Evolution Workshop, May 14 - 17, 2012, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, Virgini

AdS/CFT and Exclusive Processes in QCD

The AdS/CFT correspondence between string theory in AdS space and conformal field theories in physical space-time leads to an analytic, semi-classical model for strongly-coupled QCD which has scale invariance and dimensional counting at short distances and color confinement at large distances. One can use holography to map the amplitude describing the hadronic state in the fifth dimension of Anti-de Sitter space to the light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time, thus providing a relativistic description of hadrons in QCD at the amplitude level. In particular, we show that there is an exact correspondence between the fifth-dimensional coordinate of AdS space z and a specific impact variable zeta which measures the separation of the quark and gluonic constituents within the hadron in ordinary space-time. New relativistic light-front equations in ordinary space-time can then be derived which reproduce the results obtained using the 5-dimensional theory. The effective light-front equations possess elegant algebraic structures and integrability properties. This connection between the AdS and the light-front representations allows one to compute the analytic form of the frame-independent light-front wavefunctions, the fundamental entities which encode hadron properties and allow the computation of decay constants, form factors, deeply virtual Compton scattering, exclusive heavy hadron decays and other exclusive scattering amplitudes. As specific examples we compute the pion coupling constant and study the behavior of the pion form factor in the space and time-like regions. We also determine the Dirac form factors of the proton and neutron in the space-like region.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures. Invited talk, presented at the Workshop on Exclusive Reactions at High Momentum Transfer 21-24 May 2007, Newport News, Virgini

Light-Front Holography and Novel Effects in QCD

The correspondence between theories in anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theories in physical space-time leads to an analytic, semiclassical model for strongly-coupled QCD. Light-front holography allows hadronic amplitudes in the AdS fifth dimension to be mapped to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time, thus providing a relativistic description of hadrons at the amplitude level. We identify the AdS coordinate $z$ with an invariant light-front coordinate $\zeta$ which separates the dynamics of quark and gluon binding from the kinematics of constituent spin and internal orbital angular momentum. The result is a single-variable light-front Schr\"odinger equation for QCD which determines the eigenspectrum and the light-front wavefunctions of hadrons for general spin and orbital angular momentum. The mapping of electromagnetic and gravitational form factors in AdS space to their corresponding expressions in light-front theory confirms this correspondence. Some novel features of QCD are discussed, including the consequences of confinement for quark and gluon condensates and the behavior of the QCD coupling in the infrared. The distinction between static structure functions such as the probability distributions computed from the square of the light-front wavefunctions versus dynamical structure functions which include the effects of rescattering is emphasized. A new method for computing the hadronization of quark and gluon jets at the amplitude level, an event amplitude generator, is outlined.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. Presented by SJB at the XIII Mexican School of Particles and Field