Gluon Confinement Research Articles

Matter confinement in light of the Gribov horizon

The procedure of quantization of Landau-gauge Yang-Mills theories that takes into account the presence of Gribov copies has led to the construction of a scenario of gluon confinement via an infrared effective action, the (refined) Gribov-Zwanziger theory. Here we briefly review and discuss a possible extension of this picture to the matter sector of confining Yang-Mills theories.

Color Confinement and Screening in the θ Vacuum of QCD.

QCD perturbation theory ignores the compact nature of the SU(3) gauge group that gives rise to the periodic θ vacuum of the theory. We propose to modify the gluon propagator to reconcile perturbation theory with the anomalous Ward identities for the topological current in the θ vacuum. As a result, the gluon couples to the Veneziano ghost describing the tunneling transitions between different Chern-Simons sectors of the vacuum; we call the emerging gluon dressed by ghost loops a "glost." We evaluate the glost propagator and find that it has the form G(p)=(p(2)+χ(top)/p(2))(-1) where χ(top) is the Yang-Mills topological susceptibility related to the η' mass by the Witten-Veneziano relation; this propagator describes the confinement of gluons at distances ∼χ(top)(-1/4)≃1 fm. The same functional form of the propagator was originally proposed by Gribov as a solution to the gauge copies problem that plagues perturbation theory. The resulting running coupling coincides with the perturbative one at p(2)≫√[χ(top)], but in the infrared region either freezes (in pure Yang-Mills theory) or vanishes (in full QCD with light quarks), in accord with experimental evidence. Our scenario makes explicit the connection between confinement and topology of the QCD vacuum; we discuss the implications for spin physics, high energy scattering, and the physics of quark-gluon plasma.

CGC/saturation approach for soft interactions at high energy: a two channel model

In this paper we continue the development of a model for strong interactions at high energy, based on two ingredients: the CGC/saturation approach and the BFKL Pomeron. In our approach, the unknown mechanism of confinement of quarks and gluons is characterized by several numerical parameters, which are extracted from the experimental data. We demonstrate that the two channel model successfully describes the experimental data, including both the value of the elastic slope and the energy behavior of the single diffraction cross section. We show that the disagreement with the experimental data of our previous single channel eikonal model (Gotsman et al., Eur Phys J C 75:1–18, 2015) stems from the simplified approach used for the hadron structure and is not related to our principal theoretical input, based on the CGC/saturation approach.

LANDAU CONFINING REPLICA MODEL FROM AN EXPLICITLY BREAKING OF A SU(3) GROUP WITHOUT AUXILIARY FIELDS

We propose a mechanism displaying gluon confinement, as defined by the behavior of the propagators, in a model of SU(2) gauge fields. The model originates from an explicitly broken SU(3) gauge theory giving rise to a replica model composed of three mixed SU(2) groups. The mechanism consists in the usual SU(3) Yang–Mills theory in the Landau gauge, with a soft breaking term in such a way as to change the field propagation and group content at low energies. The relation of this soft mass term with the Gribov problem is presented and the link between soft terms and the scaling and decoupling solutions is discussed.

POSITIVITY VIOLATIONS IN QCD

Both lattice simulations and theoretical studies show that the spectral function of the gluon propagator of QCD (in various gauges, as well as for the gauge-invariant Pinch Technique, or PT, propagator) is not nonnegative everywhere, although it should be if it has a physical interpretation as in QED. Theory says moreover that the non-positive spectral function of the Landau-gauge or of the PT gluon propagator is further constrained to obey a superconvergence relation (the integral of the spectral function vanishes). We review the theoretical and lattice evidence for violation of positivity as well as various interpretations of this violation, and consider methods for checking superconvergence on the lattice (so far undone). The most common interpretation is that positivity violation implies confinement of gluons, so the gluon propagator does not describe processes with physical gluons. Another more direct and gauge-invariant interpretation arises from the PT: Asymptotic freedom alone demands non-positivity and superconvergence.

To What Extent is Gluon Confinement an Empirical Fact?

Experimental verifications of Confinement in hadron physics have established the absence of charges with a fraction of the electron's charge by studying the energy deposited in ionization tracks at high energies, and performing Millikan experiments with charged droplets at rest. These experiments test only the absence of particles with fractional charge in the asymptotic spectrum, and thus "Quark" Confinement. However what theory suggests is that Color is confined, that is, all asymptotic particles are color singlets. Since QCD is a non-Abelian theory, the gluon force carriers (indirectly revealed in hadron jets) are colored. We empirically examine what can be said about Gluon Confinement based on the lack of detection of appropriate events, aiming at an upper bound for high-energy free-gluon production.

Glimpsing Colour in a World of Black and White

The past 40 years have taught us that nucleons are built of constituents that carry colour charges with interactions governed by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). How experiments (past, present and future) at Jefferson Lab probe colourless nuclei to map out these internal colour degrees of freedom is presented. When combined with theoretical calculations, these will paint a picture of how the confinement of quarks and gluons, and the structure of the QCD vacuum, determine the properties of all (light) strongly interacting states.

Hadron spectrum and infrared-finite behavior of QCD running coupling

We study the behavior of the QCD effective coupling αs in the low-energy region by exploiting the conventional meson spectrum within a relativistic quantum-field model based on analytical confinement of quarks and gluons. The spectra of quark-antiquark and two-gluon bound states are defined by using a master equation similar to the ladder Bethe-Salpeter equation. A new, independent and specific infrared-finite behavior of QCD coupling is found below energy scale ∼1 GeV. Particularly, an infrared-fixed point is extracted at αs(0) ≅ 0.757 for confinement scale Λ = 345 MeV. We provide a new analytic estimate of the lowest-state glueball mass. As applications, we also estimate masses of some intermediate and heavy mesons as well as the weak-decay constants of light mesons. By introducing only a minimal set of parameters (the quark masses mf and Λ) we obtain results in reasonable agreement with recent experimental data in a wide range of energy scale ∼0.1–10 GeV. We demonstrate that global properties of some low-energy phenomena may be explained reasonably in the framework of a simple relativistic quantum-field model if one guesses correct symmetry structure of the quark-gluon interaction in the confinement region and uses simple forms of propagators in the hadronisation regime. The model may serve a reasonable framework to describe simultaneously different sectors in low-energy particle physics.

Low-energy effective Yang-Mills theory for quark and gluon confinement

We derive a gauge-invariant low-energy effective model of the Yang-Mills theory. We find that the effective gluon propagator belongs to the Gribov-Stingl type and agrees with it when a mass term which breaks nilpotency of the BRST symmetry is included. We show that the effective model with gluon propagator of the Gribov-Stingl type exhibits both quark and gluon confinement: the Wilson loop average has the area law and the Schwinger function violates reflection positivity. However, we argue that both quark and gluon confinement can be obtained even in the absence of such a mass term.

Gluon confinement, i-particles and BRST soft breaking

A few issues on gluon confinement are addressed with the help of a renormalizable gauge model obtained by introducing a replica of the Faddeev–Popov action and a soft breaking of the BRST symmetry. Confinement turns out to be encoded in the spectral properties of the corresponding correlation functions. While the propagators of the elementary fields have no interpretation in terms of physical excitations, examples of local composite operators whose two-point correlation functions possess a spectral representation with positive spectral density can be introduced. These composite operators turn out to be left invariant by the BRST transformations, a feature which has strong consequences on their renormalizability properties. Moreover, they display a direct interpretation in terms of i-particles (Baulieu et al 2010 Phys. Rev. D 82 025021), which are the unphysical modes corresponding to a confining propagator of the Gribov type. A possible way to take into account the effects of the Gribov copies is also outlined.

Cosmic rays and tests of fundamental principles

It is now widely acknowledged that cosmic rays experiments can test possible new physics directly generated at the Planck scale or at some other fundamental scale. By studying particle properties at energies far beyond the reach of any man-made accelerator, they can yield unique checks of basic principles. A well-known example is provided by possible tests of special relativity at the highest cosmic-ray energies. But other essential ingredients of standard theories can in principle be tested: quantum mechanics, uncertainty principle, energy and momentum conservation, effective space-time dimensions, hamiltonian and lagrangian formalisms, postulates of cosmology, vacuum dynamics and particle propagation, quark and gluon confinement, elementariness of particles... Standard particle physics or string-like patterns may have a composite origin able to manifest itself through specific cosmic-ray signatures. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays, but also cosmic rays at lower energies, are probes of both "conventional" and new Physics. Status, prospects, new ideas, and open questions in the field are discussed. The Post Scriptum shows that several basic features of modern cosmology naturally appear in a SU(2) spinorial description of space-time without any need for matter, relativity or standard gravitation. New possible effects related to the spinorial space-time structure can also be foreseen. Similarly, the existence of spin-1/2 particles can be naturally related to physics beyond Planck scale and to a possible pre-Big Bang era.

Renormalization of the Mass Gap

The full gluon propagator relevant for the description of the truly non-perturbative QCD dynamics, the so-called intrinsically non-perturbative gluon propagator has been derived in our previous work. It explicitly depends on the regularized mass gap, which dominates its structure at small gluon momentum. It is automatically transversal in a gauge invariant way. It is characterized by the presence of severe infrared singularities at small gluon momentum, so the gluons remain massless, and this does no depend on the gauge choice. In this paper we have shown how precisely the renormalization program for the regularized mass gap should be performed. We have also shown how precisely severe infrared singularities should be correctly treated. This allowed to analytically formulate the exact and gauge-invariant criteria of gluon and quark confinement. After the renormalization program is completed, one can derive the gluon propagator applicable for the calculation of physical observables, processes, etc., in low-energy QCD from first principles.

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE COSMOLOGICAL QCD PHASE TRANSITION

The cosmological QCD phase transitions may have taken place between 10-5 s and 10-4 s in the early universe offers us one of the most intriguing and fascinating questions in cosmology. In bag models, the phase transition is described by the first-order phase transition and the role played by the latent "heat" or energy released in the transition is highly nontrivial and is being classified as the first-order phase transition. In this presentation, we assume, first of all, that the cosmological QCD phase transition, which happened at a time between 10-5 s and 10-4 s or at the temperature of about 150 MeV and accounts for confinement of quarks and gluons to within hadrons, would be of first-order. Of course, we may assume that the cosmological QCD phase transition may not be of the first-order. To get the essence out of the first-order scenario, it is sufficient to approximate the true QCD vacuum as one of possibly degenerate vacua and when necessary we try to model it effectively via a complex scalar field with spontaneous symmetry breaking. On the other hand, we may use a real scalar field in describing the non-first-order QCD phase transition. In the first-order QCD phase transition, we could examine how and when "pasted" or "patched" domain walls are formed, how long such walls evolve in the long run, and we believe that the significant portion of dark matter could be accounted for in terms of such domain-wall structure and its remnants. Of course, the cosmological QCD phase transition happened in the way such that the false vacua associated with baryons and many other color-singlet objects did not disappear (that is, using the bag-model language, there are bags of radius 1.0 fermi for the baryons) — but the amount of the energy remained in the false vacua is negligible by comparison. The latent energy released due to the conversion of the false vacua to the true vacua, in the form of "pasted" or "patched" domain walls in the short run and their numerous evolved objects, should make the concept of the "radiation-dominated" epoch, or of the "matter-dominated" epoch to be reexamined.

What Happened to the Cosmological QCD Phase Transition?

The scenario that some first-order phase transitions may have taken place in the early Universe offers us one of the most intriguing and fascinating questions in cosmology. Indeed, the role played by the latent ”heat” or energy released in the phase transition is highly nontrivial and may lead to some surprising, important results. In this paper, we take the wisdom that the cosmological QCD phase transition, which happened at a time between 10 5 sec and 10 4 sec or at the temperature of about 150MeV and accounts for confinement of quarks and gluons to within hadrons, would be of first order. To get the essence out of the scenario, it is sufficient to approximate the true QCD vacuum as one of degenerate �-vacua and when necessary we try to model it effectively via a complex scalar field with spontaneous symmetry breaking. We examine how and when ”pasted” or ”patched” domain walls are formed, how long such walls evolve in the long run, and we believe that the significant portion of dark matter could be accounted for in terms of such domain-wall structure and its remnants. Of course, the cosmological QCD phase transition happened in the way such that the false vacua associated with baryons and many other color-singlet objects did not disappear (that is, using the bag-model language, there are bags of radius 1.0 fermi for the baryons) - but the amount of the energy remained in the false vacua is negligible. The latent energy released due to the conversion of the false vacua to the true vacua, in the form of ”pasted” or ”patched” domain walls in the short run and their numerous evolved objects, should make the concept of the ”radiation-dominated” epoch, or of the ”matter-dominated” epoch to be re-examined.

Just how different are theSU(2)andSU(3)Landau-gauge propagators in the infrared regime?

The infrared behavior of gluon and ghost propagators in Yang-Mills theories is of central importance for understanding quark and gluon confinement in QCD. While simulations of pure SU(3) gauge theory correspond to the physical case in the limit of infinite quark mass, the SU(2) case (i.e. pure two-color QCD) is usually employed as a simplification, in the hope that qualitative features be the same as for the SU(3) case. Here we carry out the first comparative study of lattice (Landau) propagators for these two gauge groups. Our data were especially produced with equivalent lattice parameters in order to allow a careful comparison of the two cases. We find very good agreement between SU(2) and SU(3) propagators, showing that in the IR limit the equivalence of the two cases is quantitative, at least down to about 1 GeV. Our results suggest that the infrared behavior of these propagators is independent of the gauge group SU(N{sub c}), as predicted by Schwinger-Dyson equations.

INFRARED-SUPPRESSED GLUON PROPAGATOR IN 4D YANG–MILLS THEORY IN A LANDAU-LIKE GAUGE

The infrared behavior of the gluon propagator is directly related to confinement in QCD. Indeed, the Gribov–Zwanziger scenario of confinement predicts an infrared vanishing (transverse) gluon propagator in Landau-like gauges, implying violation of reflection positivity and gluon confinement. Finite-volume effects make it very difficult to observe (in the minimal Landau gauge) an infrared suppressed gluon propagator in lattice simulations of the four-dimensional case. Here we report results for the SU(2) gluon propagator in a gauge that interpolates between the minimal Landau gauge (for gauge parameter λ equal to 1) and the minimal Coulomb gauge (corresponding to λ = 0). For small values of λ we find that the spatially-transverse gluon propagator D tr (0, |p|), considered as a function of the spatial momenta |p|, is clearly infrared suppressed. This result is in agreement with the Gribov–Zwanziger scenario and with previous numerical results in the minimal Coulomb gauge. We also discuss the nature of the limit λ→0 (complete Coulomb gauge) and its relation to the standard Coulomb gauge (λ = 0). Our findings are corroborated by similar results in the three-dimensional case, where the infrared suppression is observed for all considered values of λ.

WHAT THE INFRARED BEHAVIOR OF QCD VERTEX FUNCTIONS IN LANDAU GAUGE CAN TELL US ABOUT CONFINEMENT

The infrared behavior of Landau gauge QCD vertex functions is investigated employing a skeleton expansion of the Dyson–Schwinger and Renormalization Group equations. Results for the ghost-gluon, three-gluon, four-gluon and quark-gluon vertex functions are presented. Positivity violation of the gluon propagator, and thus gluon confinement, is demonstrated. Results of the Dyson–Schwinger equations for a finite volume are compared to corresponding lattice data. It is analytically demonstrated that a linear rising potential between heavy quarks can be generated by infrared singularities in the dressed quark-gluon vertex. The selfconsistent mechanism that generates these singularities necessarily entails the scalar Dirac amplitudes of the full vertex and the quark propagator. These can only be present when chiral symmetry is broken, either explicitly or dynamically.

DARK MATTER AND COSMOLOGICAL QCD PHASE TRANSITION

In this talk, we take the wisdom that the cosmological QCD phase transition, which happened at a time between 10−5 sec and 10−4 sec or at the temperature of about 150 MeV and accounts for confinement of quarks and gluons to within hadrons, would be of first order, i.e., would release latent "heat" or latent energy. I wish to base on two important points, i.e. (1) that we have 25% dark matter in the present Universe, and (2) that when the early universe underwent the cosmological QCD phase transition it released 1.02 × 10gm/cm3 in latent energy huge compared to 5.88 × 109 gm/cm3 radiation (photon) energy, to deduce that the two numbers are in fact closely related. It is sufficient to approximate the true QCD vacuum as one of degenerate θ-vacua and can be modelled effectively via a complex scalar field with spontaneous symmetry breaking. We examine how "pasted" or "patched" domain walls are formed, how such walls evolve in the long run, and we believe that the majority of dark matter could be accounted for in terms of such domain-wall structure and its remnants. The latent energy released due to the conversion of the false vacua to the true vacua, in the form of "pasted" or "patched" domain walls at first and their evolved objects, make it obsolete the "radiation-dominated" epoch or later on the "matter-dominated" epoch.

On the Faddeev-Popov operator eigenspectrum in topological background fields

During the last years significant progress has been made in the understanding of the confinement of quarks and gluons. However, this progress has been made in two directions, which are at first sight very different. On the one hand, topological configurations seem to play an important role in the formation of the static quark-anti-quark potential. On the other hand, when studying Green's functions, the Faddeev-Popov operator seems to be of importance, especially its spectrum near zero. To investigate whether a connection between both aspects exist, the eigenspectrum of the Faddeev-Popov operator in an instanton and a center-vortex background field are determined analytically in the continuum. It is found that both configurations give rise to additional zero-modes. This agrees with corresponding studies of vortices in lattice gauge theory. In the vortex case also one necessary condition for the confinement of color is fulfilled. Some possible consequences of the results will be discussed, and also a few remarks on monopoles will be given.

SHEAR VISCOSITY OF YANG–MILLS THEORY IN THE CONFINEMENT PHASE

In terms of a simple holographic model, we study the absorption cross-section and the shear viscosity of a pure Yang–Mills field at low temperature where the system is in the confinement phase. Then we expect that the glueball states are the dominant modes in this phase. In our holographic model, an infrared cut-off rm is introduced as a parameter which fixes the lowest mass of the glueball. As a result, the critical temperature of gluon confinement is estimated to be Tc ~ 127 MeV . For T < Tc, we find that both the absorption cross-section and the shear viscosity are independent of the temperature. Their values are frozen at the values corresponding to the critical point, for 0 < T < Tc. We discuss this behavior by considering the glueball mass and its temperature dependence.