Running coupling constant and transition from low to high energies in quantum chromodynamics

Abstract

The remarkable feature of QCD is that the coupling constant (the strength of the interaction) depends on the energy of the interacting particles. At high energies, the coupling constant vanishes and QCD becomes asymptotically free. However, at lower energy, the running coupling constant increases, leading to the confining strong-coupling theory at energies of the order of hadron masses. We study the essential effects of the running coupling constant and analyze the transition from high to low energies in different processes.