Gluon Mass Generation Research Articles

Gluon mass generation from renormalons and resurgence

We establish a link between the concepts of infrared renormalons, infrared fixed point, and dynamical nonperturbative mass generation of gluons in pure Yang-Mills theories. By utilizing recent results in the resurgent analysis of renormalons through non-linear ordinary differential equations, we develop a new description for the gluon propagator, thereby realizing the Schwinger mechanism. Specifically, this approach leads to a nonperturbative, dynamic mass generation for Yang-Mills gauge bosons in the deep infrared region, a phenomenon closely associated with color confinement. Furthermore, we present arguments about the limit of applicability of the Borel-Ecalle resummation of the renormalons by comparing it with the Kallen-Lehman representation of the gluon propagator.

Heavy quark correlators in an instanton liquid model with perturbative corrections

In the present work we consider the influence on the heavy quark correlators due to the instanton background in the framework of instanton liquid model (ILM) of QCD vacuum by taking into account also the perturbative gluon effects. For a single heavy quark this leads to the mass shift due to the direct-instanton nonperturbative and ILM modified perturbative contributions, respectively. In the heavy quark-antiquark ($Q\bar{Q}$) sector we obtain the potential consisting the direct instanton induced part and the one-gluon exchange (OGE) perturbative part which is screened at large distances due to the nonperturbative dynamics. At the region of interest corresponding to the heavy quark physics the screening effect in OGE can be well approximated by a Yukawa-type potential in terms of the dynamically generated gluon mass. A possible implication of the present studies to the phenomenology of heavy quarkonium is also discussed.

Nonperturbative Ball-Chiu construction of the three-gluon vertex

We present the detailed derivation of the longitudinal part of the three-gluon vertex from the Slavnov-Taylor identities that it satisfies, by means of a nonperturbative implementation of the Ball-Chiu construction; the latter, in its original form, involves the inverse gluon propagator, the ghost dressing function, and certain form factors of the ghost-gluon kernel. The main conceptual subtlety that renders this endeavor nontrivial is the infrared finiteness of the gluon propagator, and the resulting need to separate the vertex into two pieces, one that is intimately connected with the emergence of a gluonic mass scale, and one that satisfies the original set of Slavnov-Taylor identities, but with the inverse gluon propagator replaced by its "kinetic" term. The longitudinal form factors obtained by this construction are presented for arbitrary Euclidean momenta, as well as special kinematic configurations, parametrized by a single momentum. A particularly preeminent feature of the components comprising the tree-level vertex is their considerable suppression for momenta below 1 GeV, and the appearance of the characteristic "zero-crossing" in the vicinity of 100-200 MeV. Special combinations of the form factors derived with this method are compared with the results of recent large-volume lattice simulations as well as Schwinger-Dyson equations, and good overall agreement is found. A variety of issues related to the distribution of the pole terms responsible for the gluon mass generation are discussed in detail, and their impact on the structure of the transverse parts is elucidated. In addition, a brief account of several theoretical and phenomenological possibilities involving these newly acquired results is presented.

Gribov copies, avalanches and dynamic generation of a gluon mass

Analytic calculations in the infrared regime of nonabelian gauge theories are hampered by the presence of Gribov copies which results in some ambiguity in the gauge-fixing procedure. This problem shares strong similarities with the issue of finding the true ground state among a large number of metastable states, a typical situation in the field of statistical physics of disordered systems. Building on this analogy, we propose a new gauge-fixing procedure which, we argue, makes more explicit the influence of the Gribov copies. A 1-loop calculation shows that the dynamics of these copies can lead to the spontaneous generation of a gauge-dependent gluon mass.

Coupled dynamics in gluon mass generation and the impact of the three-gluon vertex

We present a detailed study of the subtle interplay transpiring at the level of two integral equations that are instrumental for the dynamical generation of a gluon mass in pure Yang-Mills theories. The main novelty is the joint treatment of the Schwinger-Dyson equation governing the infrared behavior of the gluon propagator and of the integral equation that controls the formation of massless bound-state excitations, whose inclusion is instrumental for obtaining massive solutions from the former equation. The self-consistency of the entire approach imposes the requirement of using a single value for the gauge coupling entering in the two key equations; its fulfilment depends crucially on the details of the three-gluon vertex, which contributes to both of them, but with different weight. In particular, the characteristic suppression of this vertex at intermediate and low energies enables the convergence of the iteration procedure to a single gauge coupling, whose value is reasonably close to that extracted from related lattice simulations.

QCD fixed points: Banks–Zaks scenario or dynamical gluon mass generation?

Fixed points in QCD can appear when the number of quark flavors [Formula: see text] is increased above a certain critical value as proposed by Banks and Zaks (BZ). There is also the possibility that QCD possess an effective charge indicating an infrared frozen coupling constant. In particular, an infrared frozen coupling associated to dynamical gluon mass (DGM) generation does lead to a fixed point even for a small number of quarks. We compare the BZ and DGM mechanisms, their [Formula: see text] functions and fixed points, and within the approximations of this work, which rely basically on extrapolations of the dynamical gluon masses at large [Formula: see text], we verify that between [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] both cases exhibit fixed points at similar coupling constant values [Formula: see text]. We argue that the states of minimum vacuum energy, as a function of the coupling constant up to [Formula: see text] and for several [Formula: see text] values, are related to the dynamical gluon mass generation mechanism.

Analytic structure of QCD propagators in Minkowski space

Analytical functions for the propagators of QCD, including a set of chiral quarks, are derived by a one-loop massive expansion in the Landau gauge, deep in the infrared. By analytic continuation, the spectral functions are studied in Minkowski space, yielding a direct proof of positivity violation and confinement from first principles.The dynamical breaking of chiral symmetry is described on the same footing of gluon mass generation, providing a unified picture. While dealing with the exact Lagrangian, the expansion is based on massive free-particle propagators, is safe in the infrared and is equivalent to the standard perturbation theory in the UV. By dimensional regularization, all diverging mass terms cancel exactly without including mass counterterms that would spoil the gauge and chiral symmetry of the Lagrangian. Universal scaling properties are predicted for the inverse dressing functions and shown to be satisfied by the lattice data. Complex conjugated poles are found for the gluon propagator, in agreement with the i-particle scenario.

Mass generation and the problem of seagull divergences

The gluon mass generation is a purely non-perturbative effect, and the natural framework to study it in the continuum are the Schwinger-Dyson equations (SDEs) of the theory. At the level of the SDEs the generation of such a mass is associated with the existence of infrared finite solutions for the gluon propagator. From the theoretical point of view, the dynamical gluon mass generation has been traditionally plagued with seagull divergences. In this work, we will review how such divergences can be eliminated completely by virtue of a characteristic identity, valid in dimensional regularization. As a pedagogical example, we will first discuss in the context of scalar QED how it is possible to eliminate all seagull divergences, by triggering the aforementioned special identity, which enforces the masslessness of the photon. Then, we will discuss what happens in QCD and present an Ansatz for the three gluon vertex, which completely eliminates all seagull divergences and at same time allows for the possibility of a dynamical gluon mass generation.

Quark ACM with topologically generated gluon mass

We investigate the effect of a small, gauge-invariant mass of the gluon on the anomalous chromomagnetic moment (ACM) of quarks by perturbative calculations at one-loop level. The mass of the gluon is taken to have been generated via a topological mass generation mechanism, in which the gluon acquires a mass through its interaction with an antisymmetric tensor field [Formula: see text]. For a small gluon mass ([Formula: see text] 10 MeV), we calculate the ACM at momentum transfer [Formula: see text]. We compare those with the ACM calculated for the gluon mass arising from a Proca mass term. We find that the ACM of up, down, strange and charm quarks vary significantly with the gluon mass, while the ACM of top and bottom quarks show negligible gluon mass dependence. The mechanism of gluon mass generation is most important for the strange quarks ACM, but not so much for the other quarks. We also show the results at [Formula: see text]. We find that the dependence on gluon mass at [Formula: see text] is much less than at [Formula: see text] for all quarks.

Exploring dynamical gluon mass generation in three dimensions

In the d=3 gluon mass problem in pure-glue non-Abelian $SU(N)$ gauge theory we pay particular attention to the observed (in Landau gauge) violation of positivity for the spectral function of the gluon propagator. This causes a large bulge in the propagator at small momentum. Mass is defined through $m^{-2}=\Delta (p=0)$, where $\Delta(p)$ is the scalar function for the gluon propagator in some chosen gauge, it is not a pole mass and is generally gauge-dependent, except in the gauge-invariant Pinch Technique (PT). We truncate the PT equations with a new method called the vertex paradigm that automatically satisfies the QED-like Ward identity relating the 3-gluon PT vertex function with the PT propagator. The mass is determined by a homogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation involving this vertex and propagator. This gap equation also encapsulates the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the massless scalar excitations, essentially Nambu-Goldstone fields, that necessarily accompany gauge-invariant gluon mass. The problem is to find a good approximate value for $m$ and at the same time explain the bulge, which by itself leads, in the gap equation for the gluon mass, to excessively large values for the mass. Our point is not to give a high-accuracy determination of $m$ but to clarify the way in which the propagator bulge and a fairly accurate estimate of $m$ can co-exist, and we use various approximations that illustrate the underlying mechanisms. The most critical point is to satisfy the Ward identity. In the PT we estimate a gauge-invariant dynamical gluon mass of $m \approx Ng^2/(2.48 \pi)$. We translate these results to the Landau gauge using a background-quantum identity involving a dynamical quantity $\kappa$ such that $m=\kappa m_L$, where $m_L^{-2}\equiv \Delta_L(p=0)$. Given our estimates for $m,\kappa$ the relation is fortuitously well-satisfied for $SU(2)$ lattice data.

Scalar coupling evolution in a non-perturbative QCD resummation scheme

We compute the Standard Model scalar coupling (λ) evolution in a particular QCD resummation scheme, where the QCD coupling becomes infrared finite due to the presence of a dynamically generated gluon mass, leading to the existence of a non-perturbative infrared fixed point. We discuss how this scheme can be fixed taking recourse to phenomenological considerations in the infrared region. The QCD β function associated to this non-perturbative coupling when introduced into the SM renormalization group equations increases the λ values at high energies.

Renormalizability of Yang-Mills theory with Lorentz violation and gluon mass generation

We show that pure Yang-Mills theories with Lorentz violation are renormalizable to all orders in perturbation theory. To do this, we employ the algebraic renormalization technique. Specifically, we control the breaking terms with a suitable set of external sources which, eventually, attain certain physical values. The Abelian case is also analyzed as a starting point. The main result is that the renormalizability of the usual Maxwell and Yang-Mills sectores are both left unchanged. Furthermore, in contrast to Lorentz violating QED, the odd CPT violation sector of Yang-Mills theories renormalizes independently. Moreover, the method induces, in a natural way, mass terms for the gauge field while the photon remains massless (at least n the sense of a Proca-like term). The entire analysis is carried out at the Landau gauge.

Stability of chromomagnetic condensation and mass generation for confinement in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory

We show that the Nielsen-Olesen instability of the Savvidy vacuum with a homogeneous chromomagnetic condensation disappears in the framework of the functional renormalization group. This result follows from our observations: (i) the vanishing imaginary part of the effective average action is realized for arbitrary infrared cutoff as a novel fixed point solution of the flow equation for the complex-valued effective average action and (ii) an approximate analytical solution for the effective average action is obtained without the pure imaginary part for large infrared cutoff. This result suggests that there exists a physical mechanism for maintaining the stability or staying on the fixed point even for sufficiently small infrared cutoff. We argue that dynamical gluon mass generation (related to two-gluon bound states identified with glueballs) occurs due to the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin-invariant vacuum condensate of mass dimension two without causing instability.

Effects of divergent ghost loops on the Green’s functions of QCD

In the present work we discuss certain characteristic features encoded in some of the fundamental QCD Green's functions, whose origin can be traced back to the nonperturbative masslessness of the ghost field, in the Landau gauge. Specifically, the ghost loops that contribute to these Green's functions display infrared divergences, akin to those encountered in the perturbative treatment, in contradistinction to the gluonic loops, whose perturbative divergences are tamed by the dynamical generation of an effective gluon mass. In d=4, the aforementioned divergences are logarithmic, thus causing a relatively mild impact, whereas in d=3 they are linear, giving rise to enhanced effects. In the case of the gluon propagator, these effects do not interfere with its finiteness, but make its first derivative diverge at the origin, and introduce a maximum in the region of infrared momenta. The three-gluon vertex is also affected, and the induced divergent behavior is clearly exposed in certain special kinematic configurations, usually considered in lattice simulations; the sign of the corresponding divergence is unambiguously determined. The main underlying concepts are developed in the context of a simple toy model, which demonstrates clearly the interconnected nature of the various effects. The picture that emerges is subsequently corroborated by a detailed nonperturbative analysis, combining lattice results with the dynamical integral equations governing the relevant ingredients, such as the nonperturbative ghost loop and the momentum-dependent gluon mass.

Gluon mass generation in the presence of dynamical quarks

We study in detail the impact of dynamical quarks on the gluon mass generation mechanism, in the Landau gauge, for the case of a small number of quark families. As in earlier considerations, we assume that the main bulk of the unquenching corrections to the gluon propagator originates from the fully dressed quark-loop diagram. The nonperturbative evaluation of this diagram provides the key relation that expresses the unquenched gluon propagator as a deviation from its quenched counterpart. This relation is subsequently coupled to the integral equation that controls the momentum evolution of the effective gluon mass, which contains a single adjustable parameter; this constitutes a major improvement compared to the analysis presented in Phys. Rev. D86 (2012) 014032, where the behaviour of the gluon propagator in the deep infrared was estimated through numerical extrapolation. The resulting nonlinear system is then treated numerically, yielding unique solutions for the modified gluon mass and the quenched gluon propagator, which fully confirm the picture put forth recently in several continuum and lattice studies. In particular, an infrared finite gluon propagator emerges, whose saturation point is considerably suppressed, due to a corresponding increase in the value of the gluon mass. This characteristic feature becomes more pronounced as the number of active quark families increases, and can be deduced from the infrared structure of the kernel entering in the gluon mass equation.

Gluon mass generation in the massless bound-state formalism

We present a detailed, all-order study of gluon mass generation within the massless bound-state formalism, which constitutes the general framework for the systematic implementation of the Schwinger mechanism in non-Abelian gauge theories. The main ingredient of this formalism is the dynamical formation of bound-states with vanishing mass, which give rise to effective vertices containing massless poles; these latter vertices, in turn, trigger the Schwinger mechanism, and allow for the gauge-invariant generation of an effective gluon mass. This particular approach has the conceptual advantage of relating the gluon mass directly to quantities that are intrinsic to the bound-state formation itself, such as the "transition amplitude" and the corresponding "bound-state wave-function". As a result, the dynamical evolution of the gluon mass is largely determined by a Bethe-Salpeter equation that controls the dynamics of the relevant wave-function, rather than the Schwinger-Dyson equation of the gluon propagator, as happens in the standard treatment. The precise structure and field-theoretic properties of the transition amplitude are scrutinized in a variety of independent ways. In particular, a parallel study within the linear covariant (Landau) gauge and the background-field method reveals that a powerful identity, known to be valid at the level of conventional Green's functions, relates also the background and quantum transition amplitudes. Despite the differences in the ingredients and terminology employed, the massless bound-state formalism is absolutely equivalent to the standard approach based on Schwinger-Dyson equations. In fact, a set of powerful relations allow one to demonstrate the exact coincidence of the integral equations governing the momentum evolution of the gluon mass in both frameworks.

Off-diagonal gluon mass generation and infrared Abelian dominance in maximally Abelian gauge in SU(3) lattice QCD

In SU(3) lattice QCD formalism, we propose a method to extract gauge fields from link variables analytically. With this method, we perform the first study on effective mass generation of off-diagonal gluons and infrared Abelian dominance in the maximally Abelian gauge in the SU(3) case. Using SU(3) lattice QCD, we investigate the propagator and the effective mass of the gluon fields in the maximally Abelian gauge with $\mathrm{U}(1{)}_{3}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\mathrm{U}(1{)}_{8}$ Landau gauge fixing. The Monte Carlo simulation is performed on ${16}^{4}$ at $\ensuremath{\beta}=5.7$, 5.8, and 6.0 at the quenched level. The off-diagonal gluons behave as massive vector bosons with the approximate effective mass ${M}_{\mathrm{off}}\ensuremath{\simeq}1.0--1.1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ in the region of $r=0.3--0.8\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fm}$, and the propagation is limited within a short range, while the propagation of diagonal gluons remains even in a large range. In this way, infrared Abelian dominance is shown in terms of short-range propagation of off-diagonal gluons. Furthermore, we investigate the functional form of the off-diagonal gluon propagator. The functional form is well described by the four-dimensional Euclidean Yukawa-type function ${e}^{\ensuremath{-}{m}_{\mathrm{off}}r}/r$ with ${m}_{\mathrm{off}}\ensuremath{\simeq}1.2--1.3\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ for $r=0.1--0.8\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fm}$. This also indicates that the spectral function of off-diagonal gluons has the negative-value region.

All-order equation of the effective gluon mass

We present the general derivation of the full nonperturbative equation that governs the momentum evolution of the dynamically generated gluon mass, in the Landau gauge. The entire construction hinges crucially on the inclusion of longitudinally coupled vertices containing massless poles of nonperturbative origin, which preserve the form of the fundamental Slavnov-Taylor identities of the theory. The mass equation is obtained from a previously unexplored version of the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the gluon propagator, particular to the pinch technique-background field method formalism, which involves a reduced number of two-loop dressed diagrams, thus simplifying the calculational task considerably. The two-loop contributions turn out to be of paramount importance, modifying the qualitative features of the full mass equation and enabling the emergence of physically meaningful solutions. Specifically, the resulting homogeneous integral equation is solved numerically, subject to certain approximations, for the entire range of physical momenta, yielding positive-definite and monotonically decreasing gluon masses.

Confined gluon from Minkowski space continuation of the PT-BFM SDE solution

Recent lattice studies exhibit infrared finite effective QCD charges. The corresponding gluon propagator in the Landau gauge is finite and nonzero, suggesting that the mechanism of dynamical gluon mass generation is in the operation. In this paper, the analytical continuation of the Euclidean (spacelike) pinch technique–background field method solution of the Schwinger–Dyson equation for the gluon propagator to the timelike region of q2 is found. We found the continuation numerically showing good agreement with a generalized Lehman representation for small Schwinger coupling. The associated non-positive spectral function has an unexpected behavior. Albeit the infrared Euclidean space solution naively suggests a like single-scale ‘massive’ propagator, the obtained spectrum of the gluon propagator does not correspond to the delta function at single scale q = m; instead more possible singularities are generated. The pattern depends on the details of the assumed Schwinger mechanism: for stronger coupling there are a few maxima and minima which appear at the scale Λ, while for perturbatively small Schwinger coupling, the spectral function shows two narrow peaks: particle and ghost excitation, which have mutually opposite signs.

Massless bound-state excitations and the Schwinger mechanism in QCD

The gauge invariant generation of an effective gluon mass proceeds through the well-known Schwinger mechanism, whose key dynamical ingredient is the nonperturbative formation of longitudinally coupled massless bound-state excitations. These excitations introduce poles in the vertices of the theory, in such a way as to maintain the Slavnov-Taylor identities intact in the presence of massive gluon propagators. In the present work we first focus on the modifications induced to the nonperturbative three-gluon vertex by the inclusion of massless two-gluon bound-states into the kernels appearing in its skeleton-expansion. Certain general relations between the basic building blocks of these bound-states and the gluon mass are then obtained from the Slavnov-Taylor identities and the Schwinger-Dyson equation governing the gluon propagator. The homogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation determining the wave-function of the aforementioned bound state is then derived, under certain simplifying assumptions. It is then shown, through a detailed analytical and numerical study, that this equation admits non-trivial solutions, indicating that the QCD dynamics support indeed the formation of such massless bound states. These solutions are subsequently used, in conjunction with the aforementioned relations, to determine the momentum-dependence of the dynamical gluon mass. Finally, further possibilities and open questions are briefly discussed.