Confinement and the consistency of Yang-Mills theory

Journal Article · Fri Feb 15 04:00:00 EST 1980 · Phys. Rev., D; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.21.1089· OSTI ID:5586556

Everett, A E

It is shown that if the Yang-Mills equations, including the generalized form of Gauss's law, are required to hold when acting on physical states, then as a result of the Wigner-Eckart theorem those states must be color singlets. Consequently the generators of the gauge group cannot be physical observables. It is also argued that the potential energy of the constituents of a color-singlet state probably becomes infinite at large separation, so that Yang-Mills theories necessarily exhibit confinement. In particular, a Coulomb-type behavior of the gauge fields is excluded.

• Research Organization: Department of Physics, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155
• OSTI ID: 5586556
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev., D; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev., D; (United States) Vol. 21:4; ISSN PRVDA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
BAG MODEL
BANACH SPACE
COLOR MODEL
COMPOSITE MODELS
EIGENSTATES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY
EXTENDED PARTICLE MODEL
GAUGE INVARIANCE
GLUONS
HILBERT SPACE
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
ISOSPIN
LIE GROUPS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
MATRIX ELEMENTS
PARTICLE MODELS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
POSTULATED PARTICLES
POTENTIAL ENERGY
QUARK MODEL
SPACE
SPIN
SU GROUPS
SU-2 GROUPS
SYMMETRY GROUPS
YANG-MILLS THEORY