Hadron Spectroscopy and Wavefunctions in QCD and the AdS/CFT Correspondence

The AdS/CFT correspondence has led to important insights into the properties of quantum chromodynamics even though QCD is a broken conformal theory. A holographic model based on a truncated AdS space can be used to obtain the hadronic spectrum of light $q \bar q, qqq$ and $gg$ bound states. Specific hadrons are identified by the correspondence of string modes with the dimension of the interpolating operator of the hadron's valence Fock state, including orbital angular momentum excitations. The predicted mass spectrum is linear $M \propto L$ at high orbital angular momentum. Since only one parameter, the QCD scale $\Lambda_{QCD}$, is introduced, the agreement with the pattern of physical states is remarkable. In particular, the ratio of $\Delta$ to nucleon trajectories is determined by the ratio of zeros of Bessel functions. One can also use the extended AdS/CFT space-time theory to obtain a model for hadronic light-front wavefunctions, thus providing a relativistic description of hadrons in QCD at the amplitude level. The model wavefunctions display confinement at large inter-quark separation and conformal symmetry at short distances. In particular, the scaling and conformal properties of the LFWFs at high relative momenta agree with perturbative QCD. These AdS/CFT model wavefunctions could be used as an initial ansatz for a variational treatment of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian. Hadron form factors in both the space-like and time-like regions are also predicted.Comment: Invited Talk, presented presented at the XI. International Conference on Hadron Spectroscopy--HADRON 05,Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 21-26 August 200

The QCD Running Coupling

We review the present knowledge for $\alpha_s$, the fundamental coupling underlying the interactions of quarks and gluons in QCD. The dependence of $\alpha_s(Q^2)$ on momentum transfer $Q$ encodes the underlying dynamics of hadron physics -from color confinement in the infrared domain to asymptotic freedom at short distances. We review constraints on $\alpha_s(Q^2)$ at high $Q^2$, as predicted by perturbative QCD, and its analytic behavior at small $Q^2$, based on models of nonperturbative dynamics. In the introductory part of this review, we explain the phenomenological meaning of $\alpha_s$, the reason for its running, and the challenges facing a complete understanding of its analytic behavior in the infrared domain. In the second, more technical, part of the review, we discuss the behavior of $\alpha_s(Q^2)$ in the high $Q^2$ domain of QCD. We review how $\alpha_s$ is defined, including its renormalization scheme dependence, the definition of its renormalization scale, the utility of effective charges, as well as Commensurate Scale Relations which connect the various definitions of $\alpha_s$ without renormalization-scale ambiguity. We also report recent measurements and theoretical analyses which have led to precise QCD predictions at high energy. In the last part of the review, we discuss the challenge of understanding the analytic behavior $\alpha_s(Q^2)$ in the infrared domain. We also review important methods for computing $\alpha_s$, including lattice QCD, the Schwinger-Dyson equations, the Gribov-Zwanziger analysis and light-front holographic QCD. After describing these approaches and enumerating their conflicting predictions, we discuss the origin of these discrepancies and how to remedy them. Our aim is not only to review the advances in this difficult area, but also to suggest what could be an optimal definition of $\alpha_s$ in order to bring better unity to the subject.Comment: Invited review article for Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics. 195 pages, 18 figures. V3: Minor corrections and addenda compared to V1 and V2. V4: typo fixed in Eq. (3.21

Light-Front Quantization and AdS/QCD: An Overview

We give an overview of the light-front holographic approach to strongly coupled QCD, whereby a confining gauge theory, quantized on the light front, is mapped to a higher-dimensional anti de Sitter (AdS) space. The framework is guided by the AdS/CFT correspondence incorporating a gravitational background asymptotic to AdS space which encodes the salient properties of QCD, such as the ultraviolet conformal limit at the AdS boundary at $z \to 0$, as well as modifications of the geometry in the large $z$ infrared region to describe confinement and linear Regge behavior. There are two equivalent procedures for deriving the AdS/QCD equations of motion: one can start from the Hamiltonian equation of motion in physical space time by studying the off-shell dynamics of the bound state wavefunctions as a function of the invariant mass of the constituents. To a first semiclassical approximation, where quantum loops and quark masses are not included, this leads to a light-front Hamiltonian equation which describes the bound state dynamics of light hadrons in terms of an invariant impact variable $\zeta$ which measures the separation of the partons within the hadron at equal light-front time. Alternatively, one can start from the gravity side by studying the propagation of hadronic modes in a fixed effective gravitational background. Both approaches are equivalent in the semiclassical approximation. This allows us to identify the holographic variable $z$ in AdS space with the impact variable $\zeta$. Light-front holography thus allows a precise mapping of transition amplitudes from AdS to physical space-time. The internal structure of hadrons is explicitly introduced and the angular momentum of the constituents plays a key role.Comment: Invited talk presented by GdT at the XIV School of Particles and Fields, Morelia, Mexico, November 8-12, 201

Constraining the Infrared Behavior of the Soft-Wall AdS/QCD Model

By requiring the correct Regge behavior in both meson and nucleon sectors, we determine the infrared asymptotic behavior of various background fields in the soft-wall AdS/QCD model, including the dilaton, the warp factor, and the scalar VEV. We then use a simple parametrization which smoothly connect these IR limits and their usual UV limits. The resulting spectrum is compared with experimental data, and the agreement between them is good.Comment: 10 pages. v2: published version in PR

Meson Transition Form Factors in Light-Front Holographic QCD

We study the photon-to-meson transition form factors (TFFs) F_{M \gamma}(Q^2) for gamma gamma^* \to M using light-front holographic methods. The Chern-Simons action, which is a natural form in 5-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS) space, leads directly to an expression for the photon-to-pion TFF for a class of confining models. Remarkably, the predicted pion TFF is identical to the leading order QCD result where the distribution amplitude has asymptotic form. The Chern-Simons form is local in AdS space and is thus somewhat limited in its predictability. It only retains the q \bar q component of the pion wavefunction, and further, it projects out only the asymptotic form of the meson distribution amplitude. It is found that in order to describe simultaneously the decay process \pi^0 \rightarrow gamma gamma and the pion TFF at the asymptotic limit, a probability for the q \bar q component of the pion wavefunction P_{q \bar q}=0.5 is required; thus giving indication that the contributions from higher Fock states in the pion light-front wavefunction need to be included in the analysis. The probability for the Fock state containing four quarks (anti-quarks) which follows from analyzing the hadron matrix elements, P_{q \bar q q \bar q} \sim 10 %, agrees with the analysis of the pion elastic form factor using light-front holography including higher Fock components in the pion wavefunction. The results for the TFFs for the eta and eta^\prime mesons are also presented. The rapid growth of the pion TFF exhibited by the BaBar data at high Q^2 is not compatible with the models discussed in this article, whereas the theoretical calculations are in agreement with the experimental data for the eta and eta^\prime TFFs.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures; matches the version published in PRD: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.07501

AdS/QCD and Light Front Holography: A New Approximation to QCD

The combination of Anti-de Sitter space (AdS) methods with light-front holography leads to a semi-classical first approximation to the spectrum and wavefunctions of meson and baryon light-quark bound states. Starting from the bound-state Hamiltonian equation of motion in QCD, we derive relativistic light-front wave equations in terms of an invariant impact variable zeta which measures the separation of the quark and gluonic constituents within the hadron at equal light-front time. These equations of motion in physical space-time are equivalent to the equations of motion which describe the propagation of spin-J modes in anti--de Sitter (AdS) space. Its eigenvalues give the hadronic spectrum, and its eigenmodes represent the probability distributions of the hadronic constituents at a given scale. Applications to the light meson and baryon spectra are presented. The predicted meson spectrum has a string-theory Regge form ${\cal M}^2 = 4 \kappa^2(n+L+S/2)$; i.e., the square of the eigenmass is linear in both L and n, where n counts the number of nodes of the wavefunction in the radial variable zeta. The space-like pion and nucleon form factors are also well reproduced. One thus obtains a remarkable connection between the description of hadronic modes in AdS space and the Hamiltonian formulation of QCD in physical space-time quantized on the light-front at fixed light-front time. The model can be systematically improved by using its complete orthonormal solutions to diagonalize the full QCD light-front Hamiltonian or by applying the Lippmann-Schwinger method in order to systematically include the QCD interaction terms.Comment: Invited talk, presented by SJB at the Fifth International Conference On Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP09), 21-26 Sep 2009, Beijing, China. Figure update