Infrared Abelian dominance without Abelian projection

Abstract

Maximal Abelian gauge has been a particular choice to study dynamical generation of off-diagonal gluon masses in QCD. This gauge is a special case of an Abelian projection. Abelian dominance is characterized by off-diagonal gluons acquiring masses in the relevant phase. Here we propose a gauge condition which is quadratic in fields and which does not fall in the class of an Abelian projection. We explore the possible vacua of the gauge-fixed effective action of the theory and find evidence that ghost bilinears may be subject to condensation, which would signal acquisition of masses by off-diagonal gluons. Such a vacuum satisfies the requirement of Abelian dominance, providing an example of the hypothesis through a mechanism other than Abelian projection.