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Aguilar, A. C., Ferreira, M. N., Ibañez, D., & Papavassiliou, J. (2023). Schwinger displacement of the quark-gluon vertex. Eur. Phys. J. C, 83(10), 967–22pp.
Abstract: The action of the Schwinger mechanism in pure Yang-Mills theories endows gluons with an effective mass, and, at the same time, induces a measurable displacement to the Ward identity satisfied by the three-gluon vertex. In the present work we turn to Quantum Chromodynamics with two light quark flavors, and explore the appearance of this characteristic displacement at the level of the quark-gluon vertex. When the Schwinger mechanism is activated, this vertex acquires massless poles, whose momentum-dependent residues are determined by a set of coupled integral equations. The main effect of these residues is to displace the Ward identity obeyed by the pole-free part of the vertex, causing modifications to its form factors, and especially the one associated with the tree-level tensor. The comparison between the available lattice data for this form factor and the Ward identity prediction reveals a marked deviation, which is completely compatible with the theoretical expectation for the attendant residue. This analysis corroborates further the self-consistency of this mass-generating scenario in the general context of real-world strong interactions.
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Aguilar, A. C., Ferreira, M. N., Ibañez, D., Oliveira, B. M., & Papavassiliou, J. (2023). Patterns of gauge symmetry in the background field method. Eur. Phys. J. C, 83(1), 86–20pp.
Abstract: The correlation functions of Yang-Mills theories formulated in the background field method satisfy linear Slavnov-Taylor identities, which are naive generalizations of simple tree level relations, with no deformations originating from the ghost-sector of the theory. In recent years, a stronger version of these identities has been found to hold at the level of the background gluon self-energy, whose transversality is enforced separately for each special block of diagrams contributing to the gluon Schwinger-Dyson equation. In the present work we demonstrate by means of explicit calculations that the same distinct realization of the Slavnov-Taylor identity persists in the case of the background three-gluon vertex. The analysis is carried out at the level of the exact Schwinger-Dyson equation for this vertex, with no truncations or simplifying assumptions. The demonstration entails the contraction of individual vertex diagrams by the relevant momentum, which activates Slavnov-Taylor identities of vertices and multi-particle kernels nested inside these graphs; the final result emerges by virtue of a multitude of extensive cancellations, without the need of performing explicit integrations. In addition, we point out that background Ward identities amount to replacing derivatives of propagators by zero-momentum background-gluon insertions, in exact analogy to standard properties of Abelian gauge theories. Finally, certain potential applications of these results are briefly discussed.
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Ferreira, M. N., & Papavassiliou, J. (2023). Gauge Sector Dynamics in QCD. Particles, 6(1), 312–363.
Abstract: The dynamics of the QCD gauge sector give rise to non-perturbative phenomena that are crucial for the internal consistency of the theory; most notably, they account for the generation of a gluon mass through the action of the Schwinger mechanism, the taming of the Landau pole, the ensuing stabilization of the gauge coupling, and the infrared suppression of the three-gluon vertex. In the present work, we review some key advances in the ongoing investigation of this sector within the framework of the continuum Schwinger function methods, supplemented by results obtained from lattice simulations.
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Aguilar, A. C., Cardona, J. C., Ferreira, M. N., & Papavassiliou, J. (2018). Quark gap equation with non-Abelian Ball-Chiu vertex. Phys. Rev. D, 98(1), 014002–15pp.
Abstract: The full quark-gluon vertex is a crucial ingredient for the dynamical generation of a constituent quark mass from the standard quark gap equation, and its nontransverse part may be determined exactly from the nonlinear Slav nov-Taylor identity that it satisfies. The resulting expression involves not only the quark propagator, but also the ghost dressing function and the quark-ghost kernel, and constitutes the non-abelian extension of the so-called “Ball-Chiu vertex,” known from QED. In the present work we carry out a detailed study of the impact of this vertex on the gap equation and the quark masses generated from it, putting particular emphasis on the contributions directly related with the ghost sector of the theory, and especially the quark-ghost kernel. In particular, we set up and solve the coupled system of six equations that determine the four form factors of the latter kernel and the two typical Dirac structures composing the quark propagator. Due to the incomplete implementation of the multiplicative renormalizability at the level of the gap equation, the correct anomalous dimension of the quark mass is recovered through the inclusion of a certain function, whose ultraviolet behavior is fixed, but its infrared completion is unknown; three particular Ansatze for this function are considered, and their effect on the quark mass and the pion decay constant is explored. The main results of this study indicate that the numerical impact of the quark-ghost kernel is considerable; the transition from a tree-level kernel to the one computed hem leads to a 20% increase in the value of the quark mass at the origin. Particularly interesting is the contribution of the fourth Ball-Chiu form factor, which, contrary to the Abelian case, is nonvanishing, and accounts for 10% of the total constituent quark mass.
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Aguilar, A. C., Ferreira, M. N., Figueiredo, C. T., & Papavassiliou, J. (2019). Nonperturbative structure of the ghost-gluon kernel. Phys. Rev. D, 99(3), 034026–26pp.
Abstract: The ghost-gluon scattering kernel is a special correlation function that is intimately connected with two fundamental vertices of the gauge sector of QCD: the ghost-gluon vertex, which may be obtained from it through suitable contraction, and the three-gluon vertex, whose Slavnov-Taylor identity contains that kernel as one of its main ingredients. In this work we present a detailed nonperturbative study of the five form factors comprising it, using as the starting point the “one-loop dressed” approximation of the dynamical equations governing their evolution. The analysis is carried out for arbitrary Euclidean momenta and makes extensive use of the gluon propagator and the ghost dressing function, whose infrared behavior has been firmly established from a multitude of continuum studies and large-volume lattice simulations. In addition, special Ansatze are employed for the vertices entering in the relevant equations, and their impact on the results is scrutinized in detail. Quite interestingly, the veracity of the approximations employed may be quantitatively tested by appealing to an exact relation, which fixes the value of a special combination of the form factors under construction. The results obtained furnish the two form factors of the ghostgluon vertex for arbitrary momenta and, more importantly, pave the way toward the nonperturbative generalization of the Ball-Chiu construction for the longitudinal part of the three-gluon vertex.
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