Maximal Wavelength of Confined Quarks and Gluons and Properties of Quantum Chromodynamics

Journal Article · Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2008 · Phys.Lett.B666:95-99,2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2008.06.054· OSTI ID:935697

Brodsky, Stanley J; Shrock, Robert

Because quarks and gluons are confined within hadrons, they have a maximum wavelength of order the confinement scale. Propagators, normally calculated for free quarks and gluons using Dyson-Schwinger equations, are modified by bound-state effects in close analogy to the calculation of the Lamb shift in atomic physics. Because of confinement, the effective quantum chromodynamic coupling stays finite in the infrared. The quark condensate which arises from spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in the bound state Dyson-Schwinger equation is the expectation value of the operator {bar q}q evaluated in the background of the fields of the other hadronic constituents, in contrast to a true vacuum expectation value. Thus quark and gluon condensates reside within hadrons. The effects of instantons are also modified. We discuss the implications of the maximum quark and gluon wavelength for phenomena such as deep inelastic scattering and annihilation, the decay of heavy quarkonia, jets, and dimensional counting rules for exclusive reactions. We also discuss implications for the zero-temperature phase structure of a vectorial SU(N) gauge theory with a variable number N{sub f} of massless fermions.

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 935697
• Report Number(s): SLAC-PUB-13246; PYLBAJ; arXiv:0806.1535; TRN: US0804638
• Journal Information: Phys.Lett.B666:95-99,2008, Vol. 666; ISSN 0370-2693
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ANNIHILATION
ATOMIC PHYSICS
BOUND STATE
CHIRAL SYMMETRY
CONDENSATES
CONFINEMENT
DECAY
DEEP INELASTIC SCATTERING
EXPECTATION VALUE
FERMIONS
GLUONS
HADRONS
INSTANTONS
LAMB SHIFT
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
QUARKS
WAVELENGTHS
Phenomenology-HEP
Theory-HEP
HEPPH
HEPTH