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Abundant phenomenology suggests that strong decays from relatively low-excitation hadrons into other hadrons proceed by the creation of a light quark-antiquark pair with zero total angular momentum, the so called $^3P_0$ mechanism originating from a scalar bilinear. Yet the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) interaction is perturbatively mediated by gluons of spin one, and QCD presents a chirally symmetric Lagrangian. Such scalar decay term must be spontaneously generated upon breaking chiral symmetry. We attempt to reproduce this with the help of the quark-gluon vertex in Landau gauge, whose nonperturbative structure has been reasonably elucidated in the last years, and insertions of a uniform, constant chromoelectric field. This is akin to Schwinger pair production in Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), and we provide a comparison with its two field-insertions diagram. We find that, the symmetry being cylindrical, the adequate quantum numbers to discuss the production are rather $^3\Sigma_0$, $^3\Sigma_1$ and $^3\Pi_0$ as in diatomic molecules, and we indeed find a sizeable contribution of the third decay mechanism, which may give a rationale for the $^3P_0$ phenomenology, as long as the momentum of the produced pair is at or below the scale of the bare or dynamically generated fermion mass. On the other hand, ultrarelativistic fermions are rather ejected with $^3\Sigma_1$ quantum numbers. In QED, our results suggest that $^3\Sigma_0$ dominates, whereas the constraint of producing a color singlet in QCD leads to $^3\Pi_0$ dominance at sub-GeV momenta., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures

The gauge-boson, ghost and fermion propagators as well as the gauge-boson--ghost vertex function are studied for SU(N), Sp(2N) and SO(N) gauge groups. We solve a set of coupled Dyson-Schwinger equations in Landau gauge for a variable, fractional number $N_f$ of massless fermions in the fundamental representation. For large $N_f$ we find a phase transition from a chirally broken into a chirally symmetric phase that is consistent with the behavior expected inside the conformal window. Even in the presence of fermions the gauge-boson--ghost-vertex dressing remains small. In the conformal window this vertex shows the expected power law behavior. It does not assume its tree-level value in the far infrared, but the respective dressing function is a constant greater than one., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables; v2: changed title, added discussion on the vertex' Nc dependence, added Fig.4,6,7,8, further minor changes

Dynamical Chiral Symmetry Breaking (DCSB) in Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) for the light quarks is an indispensable concept for understanding hadron physics, i.e., the spectrum and the structure of hadrons. In Functional Approaches to QCD the respective role of the quark propagator has been evident since the seminal work of Nambu and Jona-Lasinio has been recast in QCD's terms. It not only highlights one of the most important aspects of DCSB, the dynamical generation of constituent quark masses, but also makes plausible that DCSB is a robustly occurring phenomenon in QCD. The latter impression, however, changes when higher $n$-point functions are taken into account. In particular, the quark-gluon vertex, i.e., the most elementary $n$-point function describing the full, non-perturbative quark-gluon interaction, plays a dichotomous role: It is subject to DCSB as signalled by its scalar and tensor components but it is also a driver of DCSB due to the infrared enhancement of most of its components. Herein, the relevant self-consistent mechanism is elucidated. It is pointed out that recently obtained results imply that, at least in the covariant gauge, DCSB in QCD is located close to the critical point and is thus a delicate effect. And, requiring a precise determination of QCD's three-point functions, DCSB is established, in particular in view of earlier studies, by an intricate interplay of the self-consistently determined magnitude and momentum dependence of various tensorial components of the gluon-gluon and the quark-gluon interactions., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure

The analytic structure of elementary correlation functions of a quantum field is relevant for the calculation of masses of bound states and their time-like properties in general. In quantum chromodynamics, the calculation of correlation functions for purely space-like momenta has reached a high level of sophistication, but the calculation at time-like momenta requires refined methods. One of them is the contour deformation method. Here we describe how to employ it for three-point functions. The basic mechanisms are discussed for a scalar theory, but they are the same for more complicated theories and are thus relevant, e.g., for the three-gluon or quark-gluon vertices of quantum chromodynamics. Their inclusion in existing truncation schemes is a crucial step for investigating the analytic structure of elementary correlation functions of quantum chromodynamics and the calculation of its spectrum from them., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures

We explore the analytic structure of three-point functions using contour deformations. This method allows continuing calculations analytically from the spacelike to the timelike regime. We first elucidate the case of two-point functions with explicit explanations how to deform the integration contour and the cuts in the integrand to obtain the known cut structure of the integral. This is then applied to one-loop three-point integrals. We explicate individual conditions of the corresponding Landau analysis in terms of contour deformations. In particular, the emergence and position of singular points in the complex integration plane are relevant to determine the physical thresholds. As an exploratory demonstration of this method's numerical implementation we apply it to a coupled system of functional equations for the propagator and the three-point vertex of $\phi^3$ theory. We demonstrate that under generic circumstances the three-point vertex function displays cuts which can be determined from modified Landau conditions., Comment: 26 pages, 21 figures, 1 table; v2: typos fixed, references added

Particle production through ultra-strong electric fields is a well-studied research field. Nevertheless, despite repeated attempts to relate the production rate within the field to the formation time of a particle, the latter is still shrouded in mystery. We provide an interpretation of a particle distribution at finite times enabling us to isolate and, therefore, identify the relevant time scales regarding particle formation in quantum physics within and beyond perturbation theory., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

Motivated by the planned measurements of the time-like electromagnetic proton form factors an exploratory study of the time-like electromagnetic pion form factor is presented in a formalism which describes mesons as Poincar\'e-invariant bound states. In the respective quark interaction kernel, beyond the gluon-intermediated interactions for valence-type quarks, non-valence effects are included by allowing the pions to couple back in a self-consistent manner to the quarks. Consequently, the opening of the dominant $\rho$ decay channel, $\rho \to \pi\pi$, and the presence of a multi-particle branch cut, setting in when the two-pion threshold is crossed, are included consistently, first in the correspondingly calculated quark-photon vertex, and then consequently in the time-like electromagnetic pion form factor. The obtained results are in agreement with the available experimental data and provide further evidence for the efficacy of a vector-meson dominance model. Effects of going beyond the here employed isospin-symmetric limit are discussed. Last but not least, an outlook is provided on how to include in Poincar\'e-covariant Faddeev approaches the effects of intermediate resonances in the calculation of baryon properties., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; submitted to EPJ Web of Conferences

We study electromagnetic as well as strong isospin breaking effects in the isospin mass splittings of light pseudoscalar and vector mesons. To this end we employ a coupled system of quark Dyson-Schwinger and meson Bethe-Salpeter equations whose interaction kernels contain gluon, pion and photon exchange interactions. In bound states, QCD-induced isospin breaking is manifest on different levels. On the one hand, a different explicit up- and down-quark mass directly affects the propagators of the constituent quarks. On the other hand, it leads to different interaction kernels within the isospin multiplets. In addition, electromagnetic isospin breaking is induced via a photon exchange diagram. Using the kaon iso-doublet and the charged pion masses as input to determine the up, down and strange quark masses we find for the pion, kaon and rho meson mass splittings different patterns each. In particular, our results provide evidence that the effects from two sources of mass splittings, the different quark masses and the different quark charges, do not add up linearly., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures

We calculate gluon and ghost propagators in Yang-Mills theory in linear covariant gauges. To that end, we utilize Nielsen identities with Landau gauge propagators and vertices as the starting point. We present and discuss numerical results for the gluon and ghost propagators for values of the gauge parameter $0<\xi \le 5$. Extrapolating the propagators to $\xi \to \infty $ we find the expected qualitative behavior. We provide arguments that our results are quantitatively reliable at least for values $\xi\lesssim 1/2$ of the gauge fixing parameter. It is shown that the correlation functions, and in particular the ghost propagator, change significantly with increasing gauge parameter. In turn, the ghost-gluon running coupling as well as the position of the zero crossing of the Schwinger function of the gluon propagator remain within the uncertainties of our calculation unchanged., Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures

An exploratory study of the time-like pion electromagnetic form factor in a Poincar\'e-covariant bound state formalism in the isospin symmetric limit is presented. Starting from a quark interaction kernel representing gluon-intermediated interactions for valence-type quarks, non-valence effects are included by introducing pions as explicit degrees of freedom. The two most important qualitative aspects are, in view of the presented study, the opening of the dominant $\rho$-meson decay channel and the presence of a multi-particle branch cut setting in when the two-pion threshold is crossed. Based on a recent respective computation of the quark-photon vertex, the pion electromagnetic form factor for space-like and time-like kinematics is calculated. The obtained results for its absolute value and its phase compare favorably to the available experimental data, and they are analyzed in detail by confronting them to the expectations based on an isospin-symmetric version of a vector-meson dominance model., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures. References added

We explore a simple parameterization of new physics that results in an ultraviolet complete gauge-quark sector of the Standard Model. Specifically, we add an antiscreening contribution to the beta functions of the gauge couplings and a flavor-independent, antiscreening contribution to the beta functions of the Yukawa couplings. These two free parameters give rise to an intricate web of Renormalization Group fixed points. Their predictive power extends to the flavor structure and mixing patterns, which we investigate to demonstrate that some of the free parameters of the Standard Model could be determined by the Renormalization Group flow., Comment: 45 pages + appendix; 10 figures

We derive general properties of the scale-dependent effective spectral dimensions of non-perturbative gauge boson propagators as they appear as solutions from different methods in Yang-Mills theories. In the ultraviolet and for short time scales the anomalous dimensions of the propagators lead to a slight decrease of the spectral dimension as compared to the one of a free propagator. Lowering the momentum scale, the spectral dimension decreases further. The class of propagators which display a maximum at Euclidean momenta, and thus violate positivity, always approaches a spectral dimension of one for large times. We also show that the longest time intervals are not related to the deep infrared but to the momentum scale defined by the position of the maximum., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures; v2: added proofs in App. C, agrees with published version

Electron-positron pair production in strong electric fields, i.e., the Sauter-Schwinger effect, is studied using the real-time Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism. Hereby, the electric field is modeled to be a homogeneous, single-pulse field with subcritical peak field strength. Momentum spectra are calculated for four different polarizations - linear, elliptic, near-circular elliptic or circular - as well as a number of linear frequency chirps. With details depending on the chosen polarization the frequency chirps lead to strong interference effects and thus quite substantial changes in the momentum spectra. The resulting produced pairs' number densities depend non-linearly on the parameter characterizing the polarization and are very sensitive to variations of the chirp parameter. For some of the investigated frequency chirps this can provide an enhancement of the number density by three to four orders of magnitude., Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures

We discuss an approach for accessing bound state properties, like mass and decay width, of a theory within the functional renormalisation group approach. An important cornerstone is the dynamical hadronization technique for resonant interaction channels. The general framework is exemplified and put to work within the two-flavour quark-meson model. This model provides a low-energy description of the dynamics of two-flavour QCD with quark and hadronic degrees of freedom. We compare explicitly the respective results for correlation functions and observables with first principle QCD results in a quantitative manner. This allows us to estimate the validity range of low energy effective models. We also present first results for pole masses and decay widths. Next steps involving real-time formulations of the functional renormalisation group are discussed., Comment: Version submitted to Journal

The spectrum of light bound states in an SU(2) gauge theory with two flavors of fundamentally charged fermions is investigated by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equations in the respective channels within a 3PI-type (i.e., beyond rainbow-ladder) truncation including self-consistently a correspondingly truncated fermion--gauge-boson vertex. Remarkable differences with respect to the meson spectrum of an SU(3) gauge theory are found although in our approach these are not as pronounced as indicated by some recent respective investigations within lattice gauge field theory., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures

The covariant Faddeev approach which describes baryons as relativistic three-quark bound states and is based on the Dyson-Schwinger and Bethe-Salpeter equations of QCD is briefly reviewed. All elements, including especially the baryons' three-body-wave-functions, the quark propagators and the dressed quark-photon vertex, are calculated from a well-established approximation for the quark-gluon interaction. Selected previous results of this approach for the spectrum and elastic electromagnetic form factors of ground-state baryons and resonances are reported. The main focus of this talk is a presentation and discussion of results from a recent investigation of the electromagnetic transition form factors between ground-state octet and decuplet baryons as well as the octet-only $\Sigma^0$ to $\Lambda$ transition., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; to be published in the EPJ Web of Conferences (proceedings of the conference EXA17)

The Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism is employed to investigate electron-positron pair production in cylindrically symmetric but otherwise spatially inhomogeneous, oscillating electric fields. The oscillation frequencies are hereby tuned to obtain multiphoton pair production in the nonperturbative threshold regime. An effective mass as well as a trajectory-based semi-classical analysis are introduced in order to interpret the numerical results for the distribution functions as well as for the particle yields and spectra. The results, including the asymptotic particle spectra, display clear signatures of ponderomotive forces., Comment: 9 pages, 3 Tables, 3 Figures

We present results from a calculation of the electromagnetic transition form factors between ground-state octet and decuplet baryons as well as the octet-only $\Sigma^0$ to $\Lambda$ transition. We work in the combined framework of Dyson-Schwinger equations and covariant Bethe-Salpeter equations with all elements, the baryon three body wave function, the quark propagators and the dressed quark-photon vertex determined from a well-established, momentum dependent approximation for the quark-gluon interaction. We discuss in particular the similarities among the different transitions as well as the differences induced by SU(3)-isospin symmetry breaking. We furthermore provide estimates for the slopes of the electric and magnetic $\Sigma^0$ to $\Lambda$ transitions at the zero photon momentum point., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1512.00833

Solutions for the three-gluon and quark-gluon vertices from Dyson-Schwinger equations and the three-particle irreducible formalism are discussed. Dynamical quarks (``unquenching'') change the three-gluon vertex via the quark-triangle diagrams which themselves include fully dressed quark-gluon vertex functions. On the other hand, the quark-swordfish diagram is, at least with the model used for the two-quark-two-gluon vertex employed here, of minor importance. For the leading tensor structure of the three-gluon vertex the "unquenching" effect can be summarized for the nonperturbative part as a shift of the related dressing function towards the infrared., Comment: Talk given by Adrian L. Blum at XIIth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, August 28 - September 04, 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece

We review the spectrum and electromagnetic properties of baryons described as relativistic three-quark bound states within QCD. The composite nature of baryons results in a rich excitation spectrum, whilst leading to highly non-trivial structural properties explored by the coupling to external (electromagnetic and other) currents. Both present many unsolved problems despite decades of experimental and theoretical research. We discuss the progress in these fields from a theoretical perspective, focusing on nonperturbative QCD as encoded in the functional approach via Dyson-Schwinger and Bethe-Salpeter equations. We give a systematic overview as to how results are obtained in this framework and explain technical connections to lattice QCD. We also discuss the mutual relations to the quark model, which still serves as a reference to distinguish 'expected' from 'unexpected' physics. We confront recent results on the spectrum of non-strange and strange baryons, their form factors and the issues of two-photon processes and Compton scattering determined in the Dyson-Schwinger framework with those of lattice QCD and the available experimental data. The general aim is to identify the underlying physical mechanisms behind the plethora of observable phenomena in terms of the underlying quark and gluon degrees of freedom., Comment: 140 pages, 52 figures, 3 tables. Invited review for Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics. Changes from v1: minor additions, corrected typos and added references; brief discussion on light-front and holographic QCD in Sec. 3.2; updated Figs. 3.22-3.23 and corresponding discussion

Electron-positron pair production in space- and time-dependent electromagnetic fields is investigated. Especially, the influence of a time-dependent, inhomogeneous magnetic field on the particle momenta and the total particle yield is analyzed for the first time. The role of the Lorentz invariant $\mathbf{E}^2 - \mathbf{B}^2$, including its sign and local values, in the pair creation process is emphasized., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; Revised version: some improvements, references updated; version will be published in Phys. Lett. B

We discuss unquenching of the three-gluon vertex via its Dyson-Schwinger equation. We review the role of Furry's theorem and present first results for the quark triangle diagrams using non-perturbatively calculated dressing functions for the quark propagator and the quark-gluon vertex., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figs., presented at "Excited QCD 2015", 8-14 March 2015, Tatranska Lomnica, Slovakia

Baryons are treated as three-quark systems using QCD degrees of freedom in Poincare-covariant bound-state equations. The quark self-energy as well as the interaction between quarks are approximated by a vector-vector interaction via a single dressed-gluon exchange (rainbow-ladder truncation), thereby allowing a unified study of quark, meson and baryon properties. Here we will focus on the calculation of electromagnetic properties of spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 ground state baryons., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; to be published in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Exotic Atoms and Related Topics - EXA2014

Using the Dyson-Schwinger approach we investigate Landau gauge QCD with a relatively large number of chiral quark flavours. A self-consistent treatment on the propagator level enables us to study unquenching effects via the quark loop diagram in the gluon equation. Above the critical number of fermion flavours the non-perturbative running coupling develops a plateau over a wide momentum range. Correspondingly, the propagators follow a power law behaviour in this momentum range indicating conformal behaviour. Our value $N_f^{crit}=4.5$ is strongly sensitive to the details of the quark-gluon vertex calling for more detailed investigations in future studies., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, presented at Excited QCD 2014, 2nd - 8th February 2014, Bjelasnica Mountain, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Recent progress in our studies of propagators and three-point functions in Landau gauge for QCD and QCD-like theories is presented. Special emphasis is put on the properties of the three-gluon vertex and the quark-gluon vertex. The effect of unquenching is investigated. Furthermore, an exploratory study for a large number of light flavours is described, from where clear evidence for the qualitative behaviour of propagators in the so-called conformal window can be extracted., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures; Proceedings of the workshop QCD-TNT-III, ECT* Trento, Sept. 2-6, 2013; references updated

Quantum Chromodynamics with a relatively large number of fundamentally charged quark flavours in the chiral limit is considered. A self-consistent solution of the quark, gluon and ghost propagator Dyson-Schwinger equations in Landau gauge exhibits a phase transition. Above the critical number of fermion flavours the non-perturbative running coupling develops a plateau over a wide momentum range, and the propagators follow a power law behaviour for these momenta. Hereby, the critical number of quark flavours depends crucially on the beyond-tree-level tensor structures of the quark-gluon vertex., Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, additional clarifications and a reference added, version accepted by JHEP

We present a calculation of the three-gluon vertex from its Dyson-Schwinger equation in Landau-gauge Yang-Mills theory. All tensor structures are considered and back-coupled self-consistently. Within the chosen truncation, two-loop diagrams as well as diagrams containing Green's functions beyond the primitively divergent ones are neglected. Only the three-gluon vertex is chosen to be dynamical; the other propagators and vertex functions are provided as separate solutions of their Dyson-Schwinger equations or by Ansatz. For both scaling- and decoupling-type solutions we observe, in agreement with other studies, a sign change in the tree-level tensor dressing at a non-perturbative scale., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of Excited QCD 2014 conference

We present the first Dyson-Schwinger calculation of the three-gluon vertex in Landau-gauge QCD in which its full covariant structure is back-coupled self-consistently. We truncate a Bose-symmetrized version of the DSE at the level of one-loop diagrams, model the four-gluon vertex, and neglect terms that contain non-primitively divergent n-point functions; the ghost-gluon vertex is taken bare to good approximation. Fit functions for the ghost and gluon propagators that interpolate between scaling and decoupling are presented. In all aspects of our study Bose symmetry is manifest, from the truncation to the basis decomposition and to the momentum invariants. We explore the uniform and soft-collinear infrared limits and obtain the expected infrared exponents. The presence of a zero crossing in the tree-level component of the vertex is confirmed for both scaling- and decoupling-type scenarios. The zero crossing appears at a scale ~1 GeV; however, its location might be sensitive to the four-gluon vertex and missing components in the DSE., Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures

Electron-positron pair production in oscillating electric fields is investigated in the nonperturbative threshold regime. Accurate numerical solutions of quantum kinetic theory for corresponding observables are presented and analyzed in terms of a proposed model for an effective mass of electrons and positrons acquired within the given strong electric field. Although this effective mass cannot provide an exact description of the collective interaction of a charged particle with the strong field, physical observables are identified which carry direct and sensitive signatures of the effective mass., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, Revised version: Discussion extended, minor corrections, new Fig.3

We investigate the infrared limit of the quantum equation of motion of the gauge boson propagator in various gauges and models with a BRST symmetry. We find that the saturation of this equation at low momenta distinguishes between the Coulomb, Higgs and confining phase of the gauge theory. The Coulomb phase is characterized by a massless gauge boson. Physical states contribute to the saturation of the transverse equation of motion of the gauge boson at low momenta in the Higgs phase, while the saturation is entirely due to unphysical degrees of freedom in the confining phase. This corollary to the Kugo-Ojima confinement criterion in linear covariant gauges also is sufficient for confinement in general covariant gauges with BRST- and anti-BRST symmetry, maximal Abelian gauges with an equivariant BRST symmetry, non-covariant Coulomb gauge and in the Gribov-Zwanziger theory., Comment: 19 pages; v2: abstract rewritten, a few comments and references added; v3: title changed, major revision of the Introduction and some further minor revisions; version agrees with the one to be published in Eur. Phys. J. C

Recently the quark-gluon vertex has been investigated in Landau gauge using a combined Dyson-Schwinger and nPI effective action approach. We present here a numerical analysis of a simpler system where the quarks have been replaced by charged scalar fields. We solve the coupled system of Dyson-Schwinger equations for the scalar propagator, the scalar-gluon vertex and the Yang-Mills propagators in a truncation related to earlier studies. The calculations have been performed for scalars both in the fundamental and the adjoint representation. A clear suppression of the Abelian diagram is found in both cases. Thus, within the used truncation the suppression of the Abelian diagram predominantly happens dynamically and is to a high degree independent of the colour structure. The numerical techniques developed here can directly be applied to the fermionic case., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, presented by MH at Excited QCD 2013, 3rd - 9th February 2013, Bjelasnica Mountain, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Two-point correlators represented by either perturbative or non-perturbative integral equations in Euclidean space are considered. In general, it is difficult to determine the analytic structure of arbitrary correlators analytically. When relying on numerical methods to evaluate the analytic structure, exact predictions of, e.g., branch point locations (i.e., the multi-particle threshold) provide a useful check. These branch point locations can be derived by Cutkosky's cut rules. However, originally they were derived in Minkowski space for propagators with real masses and are thus not directly applicable in Euclidean space and for propagators of a more general form. Following similar considerations that led Karplus et al., Landau and Cutkosky more than 50 years ago to the mass summation formula that became known as Cutkosky's cut rules, we show how the position of branch points can be derived analytically in Euclidean space from propagators of very general form., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Presented at "Excited QCD 2013", 3-9 Feb.2013, Bjelasnica, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

We study baryons as three-body systems using the QCD degrees of freedom in the framework of covariant Bethe-Salpeter equations. The interaction among quarks is reduced to a vector-vector interaction via a single dressed-gluon exchange (Rainbow-Ladder truncation). The formalism allows for the study of the hadron spectrum as well as their internal properties. We will present the calculation of electromagnetic properties of spin-3/2 baryons. The model independent features of our results are assessed using two different models for the dressings., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, talk presented at the Xth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, Munich, Germany, 2012

The electromagnetic form factors of the Delta and Omega baryons are calculated in the framework of Poincare-covariant bound-state equations. The quark-quark interaction is truncated to a single dressed-gluon exchange where for the dressings we use two different models and compare the results. The calculation predicts an oblate shape for the electric charge distribution and a prolate shape for the magnetic dipole distribution. We also identify the necessity of including pion-cloud corrections at low photon-momentum transfer., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Phys.Rev.D

The n-point Green functions of Landau gauge QCD are systematically investigated in a Dyson-Schwinger approach assuming a static linearly rising potential between fundamental color charges. Besides quarks also scalar matter in the fundamental representation is considered. Starting from the hypothesis of an 1/k^4 infrared divergent matter-antimatter vertex restrictions on the general color tensor structure of this divergence are derived. Consequences for the other four-point functions of QCD, resp., scalar QCD, are presented. Hereby Casimir scaling is found. It is shown that possible singular contributions to the three-point functions vanish due to cancellations within the color algebra. On the other hand, higher n-point functions inherit the infrared singularity of the matter-antimatter vertex in certain color channels. The presented results show that linear confinement is consistently possible in a Greens function approach, however, at the expense that the decoupling theorem is circumvented by infrared singularities., Comment: 7 pages, 2figures, talk presented at the Xth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, Munich, Germany, 2012

In Dyson-Schwinger studies of the Yang-Mills propagators the four-gluon interaction has been usually neglected due to the related technical difficulties with the associated two-loop terms and especially their renormalization. A possible scenario to renormalize these fully-dressed two-loop terms is presented. Preliminary results for the Landau gauge gluon propagator are shown. Implications for the gluon propagators in maximally Abelian gauge are discussed., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, talk presented at the Xth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, Munich, Germany, 2012

The center phase transition at non-vanishing temperatures is investigated in Landau gauge Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and scalar QCD. For each theory novel order parameters for the transition are introduced. The matter-gluon vertex which occurs in the Dyson-Schwinger equations of the propagators has to be modeled in contemporary studies. It is found that the nature of the phase transition depends strongly on the detailed structure of this vertex. Our investigation motivates a precise determination of the matter-gluon vertex at non-vanishing temperatures., Comment: 8 pages, Confinement X proceedings

The non-perturbative BRST quartet mechanism in infrared Landau gauge QCD is presented. It is demonstrated that positivity violation for transverse gluons allows to identify the gluon's non-perturbative BRST quartet. To describe the respective BRST-daughter state a truncated Bethe-Salpeter equation for the gluon-ghost bound state is investigated. An analogous construction for quarks yields a truncated Bethe-Salpeter equation for the quark-ghost bound state. The gluon-ghost bound state equation in two space-time dimensions has been numerically solved., Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure; Poster presented at the Xth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, Munich, Germany, 2012

The coupled system of the quark-gluon vertex and quark propagator Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSEs) is investigated within Landau gauge QCD. The aim is to get a deeper insight into the mechanisms of quark confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and into a possible relation between these two phenomena. To this end an earlier study is extended by improving systematically on the truncations imposed on the quark-gluon vertex DSE. A clear infrared enhancement for all tensor structures of the quark-gluon vertex is obtained., Comment: 8 pages, Confinement X proceedings

The correlator of the square of the Yang-Mills field-strength tensor corresponds to a scalar glueball, i.e., to a bound-state formed by gluonic ingredients only. It has quantum numbers 0++ and its mass, as predicted by different theoretical approaches, is expected to lie between 1 and 2 GeV. Here we restrict our considerations to the Born level, that is, we consider the correlator to zeroth order in the coupling. Gluonic self-interaction is taken into account indirectly by using non-perturbative gluon propagators. The employed closed expressions are motivated by lattice and Dyson-Schwinger studies. The analytic continuation of the integrals themselves is complicated by additional obstructive structures like branch cuts and poles that are induced by the inner integral in the complex plane of the outer integration variable. We deal with this problem by deforming the outer integration contour accordingly. For different input gluon propagators we find a positive glueball spectral density which is required for physical states. Poles are, however, absent which is most likely an artifact of working at Born level., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

We study the analytic structure of the two-point function of the operator F2 which is expected to describe a scalar glueball. The calculation of the involved integrals is complicated by nonanalytic structures in the integrands, which we take into account properly by identifying cuts generated by angular integrals and deforming the contours for the radial integration accordingly. The obtained locations of the branch points agree with Cutkosky's cut rules. As input we use different nonperturbative Landau gauge gluon propagators with different analytic properties as obtained from lattice and functional calculations. All of them violate positivity and describe thus gluons absent from the asymptotic physical space. The resulting spectral densities for the glueball candidate show a cut but no poles for lightlike momenta, which can be attributed to the employed Born approximation., Comment: 10 pages, 15 figures

Recent studies of the dynamically assisted Schwinger effect have shown that particle production is significantly enhanced by a proper choice of the electric field. We demonstrate that optimal control theory provides a systematic means of modifying the pulse shape in order to maximize the particle yield. We employ the quantum kinetic framework and derive the relevant optimal control equations. By means of simple examples we discuss several important issues of the optimization procedure such as constraints, initial conditions or scaling. By relating our findings to established results we demonstrate that the particle yield is systematically maximized by this procedure., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. Revised version: Discussion extended (introduction, section III.C, conclusion) and references added, PRD Version

The center phase transition of QCD and of fundamentally charged scalar QCD at non-vanishing temperature is investigated within a Dyson-Schwinger approach. The temperature dependence of the scalar/quark propagator is studied with generalized boundary conditions. A novel order parameter for the center phase transition is established which still exhibits a considerable dependence on the scalar/quark-gluon vertex., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, presented at the LightCone 2012 Conference, Cracow, Poland, 08 - 13 July, prefactor in eq. (5) corrected, footnotes added

The quark-gluon vertex in Landau gauge QCD is investigated in the Dyson-Schwinger approach. The aim is to obtain a fully self-consistent solution of the quark propagator and the quark-gluon vertex Dyson-Schwinger equation (DSE) in the vacuum using the gluon propagator as input from other calculations. The truncation scheme used in an earlier study is systematically improved and the first decisive step towards a full solution is presented. First results for the quark propagator with a fully dressed quark-gluon vertex in a truncation that incorporates all twelve vertex tensor-structures are shown., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, presented at the LightCone 2012 Conference, Cracow, Poland, 08 - 13 July

A calculation of the masses and electromagnetic properties of the Delta and Omega baryon together with their evolution with the current quark mass is presented. Hereby a generalized Bethe-Salpeter approach with the interaction truncated to a dressed one-gluon exchange is employed. The model dependence is explored by investigating two forms for the dressed gluon exchange., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP2012), April 16-20, 2012, Palaiseau, France

We solve the ghost-gluon system of Yang-Mills theory using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Working in Landau gauge, we use the Dyson-Schwinger formalism for the mathematical description as this approach is well-suited to directly benefit from the computing power of the GPUs. With the help of a Chebyshev expansion for the dressing functions and a subsequent appliance of a Newton-Raphson method, the non-linear system of coupled integral equations is linearized. The resulting Newton matrix is generated in parallel using OpenMPI and CUDA(TM). Our results show, that it is possible to cut down the run time by two orders of magnitude as compared to a sequential version of the code. This makes the proposed techniques well-suited for Dyson-Schwinger calculations on more complicated systems where the Yang-Mills sector of QCD serves as a starting point. In addition, the computation of Schwinger functions using GPU devices is studied., Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, additional figure added, dependence on block-size is investigated in more detail, version accepted by CPC

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are employed for a numerical determination of the analytic structure of two-point correlation functions of Quantum Field Theories. These functions are represented through integrals in d-dimensional Euclidean momentum space. Such integrals can in general not be solved analytically, and therefore one has to rely on numerical procedures to extract their analytic structures if needed. After describing the general outline of the corresponding algorithm we demonstrate the procedure by providing a completely worked-out example in four dimensions for which an exact solution exists. We resolve the analytic structure by highly parallel evaluation of the correlation functions momentum space integral in the complex plane. The (logarithmically) divergent integral is regularized by applying a BPHZ-like Taylor subtraction to the integrand. We find perfect agreement with the exact solution. The fact that each point in the complex plane does not need any information from other points makes this a perfect candidate for GPU treatment. A significant gain in speed as compared to sequential execution is obtained. We also provide typical running times on several GPUs., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 1 table

Functional equations like exact renormalisation group and Dyson-Schwinger equations have contributed to a better understanding of non-perturbative phenomena in quantum field theories in terms of the underlying Green functions. In Yang-Mills theory especially the Landau gauge has been used, as it is the most accessible gauge for these methods. In the maximally Abelian gauge first results have been obtained which are very encouraging because Abelian infrared dominance has been found: The Abelian part of the gauge field propagator is enhanced at low momenta and thereby dominates the dynamics in the infrared. Also the ambiguity of two different types of solutions (decoupling and scaling) exists in both gauges. It is demonstrated how the two solutions are related in the maximally Abelian gauge. As in all two-point Dyson-Schwinger equations of the MAG the infrared dominant diagrams are sunset diagrams, in addition, a BPHZ regularisation and renormalisation of a test system with a sunset-like diagram is presented., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures; Talk given at the International Workshop on QCD Green's Functions, Confinement and Phenomenology, 5-9 September 2011, Trento, Italy

A non-perturbative version of the BRST quartet mechanism in infrared Landau gauge QCD is proposed for transverse gluons and quarks. Based on the positivity violation for transverse gluons the content of the respective non-perturbative BRST quartet is derived. To identify the gluon's BRST-daughter and second parent state, a truncated Bethe-Salpeter equation for the gluon-(anti-)ghost bound state is investigated. We comment shortly on several equivalent forms of this equation. Repeating the same construction for quarks leads to a truncated Bethe-Salpeter equation for a fundamentally charged quark-(anti-)ghost bound state. It turns out that a cardinal input to this equation is given by the fully dressed quark-gluon vertex, and that it is indispensable to dress the quark-gluon vertex in this equation in order to obtain a consistent truncation., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; Talk given at the International Workshop on QCD Green's Functions, Confinement and Phenomenology (QCD-TNT-II), 5-9 September 2011, Trento, Italy