Gluon mass and freezing of the QCD coupling

Infrared finite solutions for the gluon propagator of pure QCD are obtained from the gauge-invariant non-linear Schwinger-Dyson equation formulated in the Feynman gauge of the background field method. These solutions may be fitted using a massive propagator, with the special characteristic that the effective mass employed drops asymptotically as the inverse square of the momentum transfer, in agreement with general operator-product expansion arguments. Due to the presence of the dynamical gluon mass the strong effective charge extracted from these solutions freezes at a finite value, giving rise to an infrared fixed point for QCD.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, based on talk given at the 2007 Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics, Manchester, 19-25 Jul

A dynamical gluon mass solution in Mandelstam's approximation

We discuss the pure gauge Schwinger-Dyson equation for the gluon propagator in the Landau gauge within an approximation proposed by Mandelstam many years ago. We show that a dynamical gluon mass arises as a solution. This solution is obtained numerically in the full range of momenta that we have considered without the introduction of any ansatz or asymptotic expression in the infrared region. The vertex function that we use follows a prescription formulated by Cornwall to determine the existence of a dynamical gluon mass in the light cone gauge. The renormalization procedure differs from the one proposed by Mandelstam and allows for the possibility of a dynamical gluon mass. Some of the properties of this solution, such as its dependence on $\Lambda_{QCD}$ and its perturbative scaling behavior are also discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures. Revised version with improved discussion on the renormalization procedur

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

Chiral symmetry breaking with lattice propagators

We study chiral symmetry breaking using the standard gap equation, supplemented with the infrared-finite gluon propagator and ghost dressing function obtained from large-volume lattice simulations. One of the most important ingredients of this analysis is the non-abelian quark-gluon vertex, which controls the way the ghost sector enters into the gap equation. Specifically, this vertex introduces a numerically crucial dependence on the ghost dressing function and the quark-ghost scattering amplitude. This latter quantity satisfies its own, previously unexplored, dynamical equation, which may be decomposed into individual integral equations for its various form factors. In particular, the scalar form factor is obtained from an approximate version of the "one-loop dressed" integral equation, and its numerical impact turns out to be rather considerable. The detailed numerical analysis of the resulting gap equation reveals that the constituent quark mass obtained is about 300 MeV, while fermions in the adjoint representation acquire a mass in the range of (750-962) MeV.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figure

Phenomenological tests for the freezing of the QCD running coupling constant

We discuss phenomenological tests for the frozen infrared behavior of the running coupling constant and gluon propagators found in some solutions of Schwinger-Dyson equations of the gluonic sector of QCD. We verify that several observables can be used in order to select the different expressions of alpha_s found in the literature. We test the effect of the nonperturbative coupling in the tau-lepton decay rate into nonstrange hadrons, in the rho vector meson helicity density matrix that are produced in the chi_{c2} --> rho rho decay, in the photon to pion transition form factor, and compute the cross sections for elastic proton-proton scattering and exclusive rho production in deep inelastic scattering. These quantities depend on the infrared behavior of the coupling constant at different levels, we discuss the reasons for this dependence and argue that the existent and future data can be used to test the approximations performed to solve the Schwinger-Dyson equations and they already seems to select one specific infrared behavior of the coupling.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

A brief comment on the similarities of the IR solutions for the ghost propagator DSE in Landau and Coulomb gauges

This brief note is devoted to reconcile the conclusions from a recent analysis of the IR solutions for the ghost propagator Dyson-Schwinger equations in Coulomb gauge with previous studies in Landau gauge.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur