Instantaneous Coulomb interaction for a long-range background field in quantum chromodynamics

Journal Article · Mon Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 1979 · Phys. Rev., D; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.20.1965· OSTI ID:5786508

Stump, D R

The instantaneous Coulomb interaction is studied in the SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. The Coulomb Green's function and instantaneous Coulomb potential of a static quark-antiquark pair are evaluated for a background gauge field A/sup i//sub a/( x ) that is spherically symmetric and of long range, i.e., that is of order vertical-bar x vertical-bar/sup -1/ as vertical-bar x vertical-bar ..-->.. infinity. The field A/sup i//sub a/( x ) is of the same form as the Wu-Yang magnetic-monopole field. Expansion of the Coulomb Green's function in vector spherical harmonic functions reduces the problem to a radial problem. It is shown that the background field changes the asymptotic form of the instantaneous Coulomb interaction; specifically for the monopole field the correction term is of the same magnitude as the ordinary Coulomb interaction at large distances. In addition, the instanton contribution to the qq-bar potential energy is calculated in the temporal-gauge formulation of the theory, and compared to the instantaneous Coulomb interaction. This calculation illustrates the interpretation of instantons as tunneling field configurations. The possibility that long-range field fluctuations with the magnetic-monopole form occur in an ionized meron phase of quantum chromodynamics is discussed.

• Research Organization: Physics Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405
• OSTI ID: 5786508
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev., D; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev., D; (United States) Vol. 20:8; ISSN PRVDA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645400* -- High Energy Physics-- Field Theory
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COULOMB FIELD
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FIELD THEORIES
FUNCTIONS
GAUGE INVARIANCE
GREEN FUNCTION
INSTANTONS
INTERACTIONS
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
LIE GROUPS
MAGNETIC MONOPOLES
MERONS
MONOPOLES
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
POSTULATED PARTICLES
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUARK-ANTIQUARK INTERACTIONS
QUASI PARTICLES
RENORMALIZATION
SU GROUPS
SU-2 GROUPS
SYMMETRY GROUPS
VACUUM STATES
YANG-MILLS THEORY