Nonperturbative study of the fermion propagator in quenched QED in covariant gauges using a renormalizable truncation of the Schwinger-Dyson equation

Journal Article · Mon Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.48.4933· OSTI ID:5918905

Curtis, D C; Pennington, M R ^[1]

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1. Centre for Particle Theory, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE (United Kingdom)

The Schwinger-Dyson equation for the fermion propagator in quenched four-dimensional QED is solved using a nonperturbative ansatz for the fermion-photon vertex that satisfies the Ward-Takahashi identity, ensures the multiplicative renormalizability of the fermion equation, and reproduces low-order perturbation theory in the appropriate limit. The fermion propagator then possesses a chiral-symmetry-breaking phase only when the coupling [alpha] is larger than a critical value [alpha][sub [ital c]][congruent]0.92. This critical coupling is almost exactly gauge independent as is the dynamically generated mass, in complete contrast to the popular rainbow approximation.

• OSTI ID: 5918905
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States) Vol. 48:10; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

662110* -- General Theory of Particles & Fields-- Theory of Fields & Strings-- (1992-)
662220 -- Quantum Electrodynamics-- (1992-)
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CHIRAL SYMMETRY
ELECTRODYNAMICS
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
FOUR-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
GAUGE INVARIANCE
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
PERTURBATION THEORY
PROPAGATOR
QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
RENORMALIZATION
SYMMETRY
SYMMETRY BREAKING
WARD IDENTITY