PT Journal AU Binosi, D IbaƱez, D Papavassiliou, J TI QCD effective charge from the three-gluon vertex of the background-field method SO Physical Review D JI Phys. Rev. D PY 2013 BP 125026 - 10pp VL 87 IS 12 DI 10.1103/PhysRevD.87.125026 LA English AB In this article we study in detail the prospects of determining the infrared finite QCD effective charge from a special kinematic limit of the vertex function corresponding to three background gluons. This particular Green's function satisfies a QED-like Ward identity, relating it to the gluon propagator, with no reference to the ghost sector. Consequently, its longitudinal form factors may be expressed entirely in terms of the corresponding gluon wave function, whose inverse is proportional to the effective charge. After reviewing certain important theoretical properties, we consider a typical lattice quantity involving this vertex, and derive its exact dependence on the various form factors, for arbitrary momenta. We then focus on the particular momentum configuration that eliminates any dependence on the (unknown) transverse form factors, projecting out only the desired quantity. A preliminary numerical analysis indicates that the effective charge is relatively insensitive to the numerical uncertainties that may afflict future simulations of the aforementioned lattice quantity. The numerical difficulties associated with a parallel determination of the dynamical gluon mass are briefly discussed. ER