Color Confinement and Screening in the Vacuum of QCD
Abstract
QCD perturbation theory ignores the compact nature of the SU(3) gauge group that gives rise to the periodic θ vacuum of the theory. In this paper, we propose to modify the gluon propagator to reconcile perturbation theory with the anomalous Ward identities for the topological current in the θ vacuum. As a result, the gluon couples to the Veneziano ghost describing the tunneling transitions between different Chern-Simons sectors of the vacuum; we call the emerging gluon dressed by ghost loops a “glost.” We evaluate the glost propagator and find that it has the form G(p)=(p2+χtop/p2)-1 where χtop is the Yang-Mills topological susceptibility related to the η" mass by the Witten-Veneziano relation; this propagator describes the confinement of gluons at distances ~χtop-1/4≃1 fm. The same functional form of the propagator was originally proposed by Gribov as a solution to the gauge copies problem that plagues perturbation theory. The resulting running coupling coincides with the perturbative one at p2>>√χtop, but in the infrared region either freezes (in pure Yang-Mills theory) or vanishes (in full QCD with light quarks), in accord with experimental evidence. In conclusion, our scenario makes explicit the connection between confinement and topology of the QCD vacuum; we discuss themore »
- Authors:
-
- Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Department of Physics and RIKEN-BNL Research Center
- Tel Aviv Univ., Ramat Aviv (Israel). Department of Particle Physics, School of Physics and Astronomy; Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria and Centro Cientifico-Tecnologico de Valparaiso, Valparaiso (Chile). Departamento de Fisica
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). RIKEN Research Center
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1335420
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1184887
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-112040-2016-JA
Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC00112704; FG02-88ER40388; FG-88ER40388; SC0012704
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 114; Journal Issue: 24; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Riken BNL Research Center
Citation Formats
Kharzeev, Dmitri E., and Levin, Eugene M. Color Confinement and Screening in the θ Vacuum of QCD. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.242001.
Kharzeev, Dmitri E., & Levin, Eugene M. Color Confinement and Screening in the θ Vacuum of QCD. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.242001
Kharzeev, Dmitri E., and Levin, Eugene M. Tue .
"Color Confinement and Screening in the θ Vacuum of QCD". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.242001. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1335420.
@article{osti_1335420,
title = {Color Confinement and Screening in the θ Vacuum of QCD},
author = {Kharzeev, Dmitri E. and Levin, Eugene M.},
abstractNote = {QCD perturbation theory ignores the compact nature of the SU(3) gauge group that gives rise to the periodic θ vacuum of the theory. In this paper, we propose to modify the gluon propagator to reconcile perturbation theory with the anomalous Ward identities for the topological current in the θ vacuum. As a result, the gluon couples to the Veneziano ghost describing the tunneling transitions between different Chern-Simons sectors of the vacuum; we call the emerging gluon dressed by ghost loops a “glost.” We evaluate the glost propagator and find that it has the form G(p)=(p2+χtop/p2)-1 where χtop is the Yang-Mills topological susceptibility related to the η" mass by the Witten-Veneziano relation; this propagator describes the confinement of gluons at distances ~χtop-1/4≃1 fm. The same functional form of the propagator was originally proposed by Gribov as a solution to the gauge copies problem that plagues perturbation theory. The resulting running coupling coincides with the perturbative one at p2>>√χtop, but in the infrared region either freezes (in pure Yang-Mills theory) or vanishes (in full QCD with light quarks), in accord with experimental evidence. In conclusion, our scenario makes explicit the connection between confinement and topology of the QCD vacuum; we discuss the implications for spin physics, high energy scattering, and the physics of quark-gluon plasma.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.242001},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 24,
volume = 114,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jun 16 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Tue Jun 16 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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