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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., Oliveira, B. M., Papavassiliou, J., & Santos, L. R. (2023). Schwinger poles of the three-gluon vertex: symmetry and dynamics. Eur. Phys. J. C, 83(10), 889–20pp.
Abstract: The implementation of the Schwinger mechanism endows gluons with a nonperturbative mass through the formation of special massless poles in the fundamental QCD vertices; due to their longitudinal character, these poles do not cause divergences in on-shell amplitudes, but induce detectable effects in the Green's functions of the theory. Particularly important in this theoretical setup is the three-gluon vertex, whose pole content extends beyond the minimal structure required for the generation of a gluon mass. In the present work we analyze these additional pole patterns by means of two distinct, but ultimately equivalent, methods: the Slavnov-Taylor identity satisfied by the three-gluon vertex, and the nonlinear Schwinger-Dyson equation that governs the dynamical evolution of this vertex. Our analysis reveals that the Slavnov-Taylor identity imposes strict model-independent constraints on the associated residues, preventing them from vanishing. Approximate versions of these constraints are subsequently recovered from the Schwinger-Dyson equation, once the elements responsible for the activation of the Schwinger mechanism have been duly incorporated. The excellent coincidence between the two approaches exposes a profound connection between symmetry and dynamics, and serves as a nontrivial self-consistency test of this particular mass generating scenario.
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Aguilar, A. C., Ferreira, M. N., Papavassiliou, J., & Santos, L. R. (2023). Planar degeneracy of the three-gluon vertex. Eur. Phys. J. C, 83(6), 549–20pp.
Abstract: We present a detailed exploration of certain outstanding features of the transversely-projected three-gluon vertex, using the corresponding Schwinger-Dyson equation in conjunction with key results obtained from quenched lattice simulations. The main goal of this study is the scrutiny of the approximate property denominated “planar degeneracy”, unveiled when the Bose symmetry of the vertex is properly exploited. The planar degeneracy leads to a particularly simple parametrization of the vertex, reducing its kinematic dependence to essentially a single variable. Our analysis, carried out in the absence of dynamical quarks, reveals that the planar degeneracy is particularly accurate for the description of the form factor associated with the classical tensor, for a wide array of arbitrary kinematic configurations. Instead, the remaining three form factors display considerable violations of this property. In addition, and in close connection with the previous point, we demonstrate the numerical dominance of the classical form factor over all others, except in the vicinity of the soft-gluon kinematics. The final upshot of these considerations is the emergence of a very compact description for the three-gluon vertex in general kinematics, which may simplify significantly nonperturbative applications involving this vertex.
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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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Aguilar, A. C., De Soto, F., Ferreira, M. N., Papavassiliou, J., Pinto-Gomez, F., Roberts, C. D., et al. (2023). Schwinger mechanism for gluons from lattice QCD. Phys. Lett. B, 841, 137906–8pp.
Abstract: Continuum and lattice analyses have revealed the existence of a mass-scale in the gluon two-point Schwinger function. It has long been conjectured that this expresses the action of a Schwinger mechanism for gauge boson mass generation in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). For such to be true, it is necessary and sufficient that a dynamically-generated, massless, colour-carrying, scalar gluon+gluon correlation emerges as a feature of the dressed three-gluon vertex. Working with results on elementary Schwinger functions obtained via the numerical simulation of lattice-regularised QCD, we establish with an extremely high level of confidence that just such a feature appears; hence, confirm the conjectured origin of the gluon mass scale.
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Aguilar, A. C., Ferreira, M. N., Oliveira, B. M., & Papavassiliou, J. (2022). Schwinger-Dyson truncations in the all-soft limit: a case study. Eur. Phys. J. C, 82(11), 1068–15pp.
Abstract: We study a special Schwinger-Dyson equation in the context of a pure SU(3) Yang-Mills theory, formulated in the background field method. Specifically, we consider the corresponding equation for the vertex that governs the interaction of two background gluons with a ghost-antighost pair. By virtue of the background gauge invariance, this vertex satisfies a naive Slavnov-Taylor identity, which is not deformed by the ghost sector of the theory. In the all-soft limit, where all momenta vanish, the form of this vertex may be obtained exactly from the corresponding Ward identity. This special result is subsequently reproduced at the level of the Schwinger-Dyson equation, by making extensive use of Taylor's theorem and exploiting a plethora of key relations, particular to the background field method. This information permits the determination of the error associated with two distinct truncation schemes, where the potential advantage from employing lattice data for the ghost dressing function is quantitatively assessed.
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Aguilar, A. C., Ferreira, M. N., & Papavassiliou, J. (2022). Exploring smoking-gun signals of the Schwinger mechanism in QCD. Phys. Rev. D, 105(1), 014030–26pp.
Abstract: In Quantum Chromodynamics, the Schwinger mechanism endows the gluons with an effective mass through the dynamical formation of massless bound-state poles that are longitudinally coupled. The presence of these poles affects profoundly the infrared properties of the interaction vertices, inducing crucial modifications to their fundamental Ward identities. Within this general framework, we present a detailed derivation of the non-Abelian Ward identity obeyed by the pole-free part of the three-gluon vertex in the softgluon limit, and determine the smoking-gun displacement that the onset of the Schwinger mechanism produces to the standard result. Quite importantly, the quantity that describes this distinctive feature coincides formally with the bound-state wave function that controls the massless pole formation. Consequently, this signal may be computed in two independent ways: by solving an approximate version of the pertinent BetheSalpeter integral equation, or by appropriately combining the elements that enter in the aforementioned Ward identity. For the implementation of both methods we employ two- and three-point correlation functions obtained from recent lattice simulations, and a partial derivative of the ghost-gluon kernel, which is computed from the corresponding Schwinger-Dyson equation. Our analysis reveals an excellent coincidence between the results obtained through either method, providing a highly nontrivial self-consistency check for the entire approach. When compared to the null hypothesis, where the Schwinger mechanism is assumed to be inactive, the statistical significance of the resulting signal is estimated to be 3 standard deviations.
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Aguilar, A. C., Ambrosio, C. O., De Soto, F., Ferreira, M. N., Oliveira, B. M., Papavassiliou, J., et al. (2021). Ghost dynamics in the soft gluon limit. Phys. Rev. D, 104(5), 054028–18pp.
Abstract: We present a detailed study of the dynamics associated with the ghost sector of quenched QCD in the Landau gauge, where the relevant dynamical equations are supplemented with key inputs originating from large-volume lattice simulations. In particular, we solve the coupled system of Schwinger-Dyson equations that governs the evolution of the ghost dressing function and the ghost-gluon vertex, using as input for the gluon propagator lattice data that have been cured from volume and discretization artifacts. In addition, we explore the soft gluon limit of the same system, employing recent lattice data for the three-gluon vertex that enters in one of the diagrams defining the Schwinger-Dyson equation of the ghost-gluon vertex. The results obtained from the numerical treatment of these equations are in excellent agreement with lattice data for the ghost dressing function, once the latter have undergone the appropriate scale-setting and artifact elimination refinements. Moreover, the coincidence observed between the ghost-gluon vertex in general kinematics and in the soft gluon limit reveals an outstanding consistency of physical concepts and computational schemes.
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Aguilar, A. C., De Soto, F., Ferreira, M. N., Papavassiliou, J., & Rodriguez-Quintero, J. (2021). Infrared facets of the three-gluon vertex. Phys. Lett. B, 818, 136352–7pp.
Abstract: We present novel lattice results for the form factors of the quenched three-gluon vertex of QCD, in two special kinematic configurations that depend on a single momentum scale. We consider three form factors, two associated with a classical tensor structure and one without tree-level counterpart, exhibiting markedly different infrared behaviors. Specifically, while the former display the typical suppression driven by a negative logarithmic singularity at the origin, the latter saturates at a small negative constant. These exceptional features are analyzed within the Schwinger-Dyson framework, with the aid of special relations obtained from the Slavnov-Taylor identities of the theory. The emerging picture of the underlying dynamics is thoroughly corroborated by the lattice results, both qualitatively as well as quantitatively.
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Aguilar, A. C., Ferreira, M. N., & Papavassiliou, J. (2021). Gluon dynamics from an ordinary differential equation. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(1), 54–20pp.
Abstract: We present a novel method for computing the nonperturbative kinetic term of the gluon propagator from an ordinary differential equation, whose derivation hinges on the central hypothesis that the regular part of the three-gluon vertex and the aforementioned kinetic term are related by a partial Slavnov-Taylor identity. The main ingredients entering in the solution are projection of the three-gluon vertex and a particular derivative of the ghost-gluon kernel, whose approximate form is derived from a Schwinger-Dyson equation. Crucially, the requirement of a pole-free answer determines the initial condition, whose value is calculated from an integral containing the same ingredients as the solution itself. This feature fixes uniquely, at least in principle, the form of the kinetic term, once the ingredients have been accurately evaluated. In practice, however, due to substantial uncertainties in the computation of the necessary inputs, certain crucial components need be adjusted by hand, in order to obtain self-consistent results. Furthermore, if the gluon propagator has been independently accessed from the lattice, the solution for the kinetic term facilitates the extraction of the momentum-dependent effective gluon mass. The practical implementation of this method is carried out in detail, and the required approximations and theoretical assumptions are duly highlighted.
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