The process p¯↦γπwithin the handbag approach

We analyse the exclusive channel pˉ↦γπ⁰, assuming handbag dominance. The soft parts are parametrized in terms of CGLN amplitudes for the qˉ↦γπ⁰ transition and form factors for the pˉ↦qˉ ones; the latter represent moments of Generalized Distribution Amplitudes. We present a combined fit to Fermilab data from E760 taking simultaneously into account information from other exclusive reactions, especially from pˉ↦γγ data. Overall a nicely consistent picture emerges, such that one can hope, that our theoretical analysis will be reliable also for the kinematics of GSI/FAIR, which, hopefully, will provide much more precise and complete data. Consequently, data from this facility should improve our knowledge both on the proton-antiproton distribution amplitudes and the pion production mechanism.     

Exclusive electroproduction of pion pairs

We investigate electroproduction of pion pairs on the nucleon in the framework of QCD factorization for hard exclusive processes. We extend previous analyses by taking the hard-scattering coefficients at next-to-leading order in α_s . The dynamics of the produced pion pair is described by two-pion distribution amplitudes, for which we perform a detailed theoretical and phenomenological analysis. In particular, we obtain constraints on these quantities by comparing our results with measurements of angular observables that are sensitive to the interference between two-pion production in the isoscalar and isovector channels.     

Search for the Θ1540) in lattice QCD

We report on a study of the pentaquark Θ⁺(1540), using a variety of different interpolating fields. We use chirally improved fermions in combination with Jacobi-smeared quark sources to improve the signal and get reliable results even for small quark masses. The results of our quenched calculations, which have been done on a 12³×24 lattice with a lattice spacing of a = 0.148fm, do not provide any evidence for the existence of a Θ⁺ with positive parity. We do observe, however, a signal compatible with nucleon-kaon scattering state. For the negative parity the results are inconclusive, due to the potential mixture with nucleon-kaon and N^*-kaon scattering states.     

Large volume behaviour of Yang-Mills propagators

We investigate finite volume effects in the propagators of Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory using Dyson-Schwinger equations on a 4-dimensional torus. In particular, we demonstrate explicitly how the solutions for the gluon and the ghost propagator tend towards their respective infinite volume forms in the corresponding limit. This solves an important open problem of previous studies where the infinite volume limit led to an apparent mismatch, especially of the infrared behaviour, between torus extrapolations and the existing infinite volume solutions obtained in 4-dimensional Euclidean space-time. However, the correct infinite volume limit is approached rather slowly. The typical scales necessary to see the onset of the leading infrared behaviour emerging already imply volumes of at least 10-15 fm in lengths. To reliably extract the infrared exponents of the infinite volume solutions requires even much larger ones. While the volumes in the Monte-Carlo simulations available at present are far too small to facilitate that, we obtain a good qualitative agreement of our torus solutions with recent lattice data in comparable volumes.     

Dimension-2 condensates, <Emphasis Type="Italic">ζ</Emphasis>-regularization and large- N<Subscript>c</Subscript> Regge models

Dimension-2 and -4 gluon condensates are re-analyzed in large-N_c Regge models with the ζ-function regularization which preserves the spectrum in any ˉq channel separately. We demonstrate that the signs and magnitudes of both condensates can be properly described within the framework.     

Moments of the truncated multiplicity distributions

TIn experiment, the multiplicity distributions of inelastic processes are truncated due to finite energy, insufficient statistics or special choice of events. It is shown that the moments of such truncated multiplicity distributions possess some typical features. In particular, the oscillations of cumulant moments at high ranks and their negative values at the second rank can be considered as ones most indicative on specifics of these distributions. They allow to distinguish between distributions of different type.     

Understanding nucleon structure using lattice simulations

This review focuses on the discussion of three key results of nucleon structure calculations on the lattice. These three results are the quark contribution to the nucleon spin, J_q, the nucleon-Δ transition form factors, and the nucleon axial coupling, g_A. The importance for phenomenology and experiment is discussed and the requirements for future simulations are pointed out.     

Soft-gluon resummation in quark-vector boson vertex at high energy

Resummation of the soft-gluon radiative corrections for the quark-vector boson vertex is performed within the path-integral (world-line) approach. The leading-order expression for the vacuum-averaged Wilson integral for an arbitrary gauge field is found in n-dimensional space-time. The cusp anomalous dimension of the color non-singlet Sudakov form factor of on-mass-shell quark is calculated in an arbitrary covariant gauge in the one-loop order, and the leading double-logarithmic asymptotical behavior is obtained from the corresponding evolution equation.     

Power law running of the effective gluon mass

The dynamically generated effective gluon mass is known to depend non-trivially on the momentum, decreasing sufficiently fast in the deep ultraviolet, in order for the renormalizability of QCD to be preserved. General arguments based on the analogy with the constituent quark masses, as well as explicit calculations using the operator-product expansion, suggest that the gluon mass falls off as the inverse square of the momentum, relating it to the gauge-invariant gluon condensate of dimension four. In this article we demonstrate that the power law running of the effective gluon mass is indeed dynamically realized at the level of the non-perturbative Schwinger-Dyson equation. We study a gauge-invariant non-linear integral equation involving the gluon self-energy, and establish the conditions necessary for the existence of infrared finite solutions, described in terms of a momentum-dependent gluon mass. Assuming a simplified form for the gluon propagator, we derive a secondary integral equation that controls the running of the mass in the deep ultraviolet. Depending on the values chosen for certain parameters entering into the Ansatz for the fully dressed three-gluon vertex, this latter equation yields either logarithmic solutions, familiar from previous linear studies, or a new type of solutions, displaying power law running. In addition, it furnishes a non-trivial integral constraint, which restricts significantly (but does not determine fully) the running of the mass in the intermediate and infrared regimes. The numerical analysis presented is in complete agreement with the analytic results obtained, showing clearly the appearance of the two types of momentum dependence, well-separated in the relevant space of parameters. Several technical improvements, various open issues, and possible future directions, are briefly discussed.     

Generalized parton distributions for the nucleon in chiral perturbation theory

We complete the analysis of twist-two generalized parton distributions of the nucleon in one-loop order of heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory. Extending our previous study of the chiral-even isosinglet sector, we give results for chiral-even isotriplet distributions and for the chiral-odd sector. We also calculate the one-loop corrections for the chiral-odd generalized parton distributions of the pion.     

On dynamical gluon mass generation

The effective gluon propagator constructed with the pinch technique is governed by a Schwinger-Dyson equation with special structure and gauge properties, that can be deduced from the correspondence with the background field method. Most importantly the non-perturbative gluon self-energy is transverse order-by-order in the dressed loop expansion, and separately for gluonic and ghost contributions, a property which allows for a meanigfull truncation. A linearized version of the truncated Schwinger-Dyson equation is derived, using a vertex that satisfies the required Ward identity and contains massless poles. The resulting integral equation, subject to a properly regularized constraint, is solved numerically, and the main features of the solutions are briefly discussed.     

Quantitative comparison of filtering methods in lattice QCD

We systematically compare filtering methods used to extract topological excitations (like instantons, calorons, monopoles and vortices) from lattice gauge configurations, namely APE-smearing and spectral decompositions based on lattice Dirac and Laplace operators. Each of these techniques introduces ambiguities, which can invalidate the interpretation of the results. We show, however, that all these methods, when handled with care, reveal very similar topological structures. Hence, these common structures are free of ambiguities and faithfully represent infrared degrees of freedom in the QCD vacuum. As an application we discuss an interesting power law for the clusters of filtered topological charge.     

Aspects of quark mass generation on a torus

In this paper we report on recent results for the quark propagator on a compact manifold. The corresponding Dyson-Schwinger equations on a torus are solved on volumes similar to the ones used in lattice calculations. The quark-gluon interaction is fixed such that the lattice results are reproduced. We discuss both the effects in the infinite volume/continuum limit as well as effects when the volume is small.     

Kugo–Ojima color confinement criterion and Gribov–Zwanziger horizon condition

We rewrite the Zwanziger horizon condition in terms of the Kugo–Ojima parameter for color confinement. This enables one to explain which value of the Kugo–Ojima parameter is allowed if the horizon condition is imposed. Although all the calculations are performed in the limit of vanishing Gribov parameter for simplicity, the obtained value is consistent with the result of numerical simulations. Consequently, the ghost propagator behaves like free and the gluon propagator is non-vanishing at low momenta, in harmony with recent lattice results and decoupling solution of the Schwinger–Dyson equation. The Kugo–Ojima criterion is realized only when the restriction is removed.     

On the energy loss of high energy quarks in a finite-size quark-gluon plasma

The induced gluon emission from a fast quark passing through a finite-size QCD plasma is studied within the light-cone path integral approach. It is shown that the leading log approximation used in previous studies fails when the gluon formation length becomes on the order of the length of the medium traversed by the quark. Calculation of the energy loss beyond the leading log approximation gives the energy loss which grows logarithmically with quark energy, contrary to the energy-independent prediction of the leading log approximation.     

Scales in nuclear matter: Chiral dynamics with pion nucleon form factors<Superscript>⋆</Superscript>

A systematic calculation of nuclear matter is performed which includes the long-range correlations between nucleons arising from one- and two-pion exchange. Three-body effects from 2π exchange with excitations of virtual Δ(1232)-isobars are also taken into account in our diagrammatic calculation of the energy per particle ˉ(k _f). In order to eliminate possible high-momentum components from the interactions we introduce at each pion-baryon vertex a form factor of monopole type. The empirical nuclear matter saturation point, ρ₀ ≃ 0.16fm^-3, ˉ₀ ≃ - 16MeV, is well reproduced with a monopole mass of Λ ≃ 4πf _π ≃ 1.16GeV. As in the recent approach based on the universal low-momentum NN potential V _low-k, the inclusion of three-body effects is crucial in order to achieve saturation of nuclear matter. We demonstrate that the dependence of the pion exchange contributions to ˉ(k _f) on the “resolution” scale Λ can be compensated over a wide range of Λ by counterterms with two “running” contact couplings. As a further application we study the in-medium chiral condensate 〈ˉq〉(ρ) beyond the linear density approximation. For ρ ⩽ 1.5ρ₀ we find small corrections from the derivative dˉ(k _f)/dm _π, which are stable against variations of the monopole regulator mass Λ.     

Chiral perturbation theory for nucleon generalized parton distributions

We analyze the moments of the isosinglet generalized parton distributions H, E, , of the nucleon in one-loop order of heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory. We discuss in detail the construction of the operators in the effective theory that are required to obtain all corrections to a given order in the chiral power counting. The results will serve to improve the extrapolation of lattice results to the chiral limit.     

WChPT analysis of twisted mass lattice data

We perform a Wilson Chiral Perturbation Theory (WChPT) analysis of quenched twisted mass lattice data. The data were generated by two independent groups with three different choices for the critical mass. For one choice, the so-called pion mass definition, one observes a strong curvature for small quark masses in various mesonic observables (“bending phenomenon”). Performing a combined fit to the next-to-leading (NLO) expressions, we find that WChPT describes the data very well and the fits provide very reasonable values for the low-energy parameters.     

Chromomagnetic stability of the three flavor Larkin–Ovchinnikov–Fulde–Ferrell phase of QCD

We compute in the Ginzburg–Landau approximation the gluon Meissner masses for the Larkin–Ovchinnikov–Fulde–Ferrell (LOFF) phase of QCD with three flavors in the kinematical range where it is energetically favored. We find real Meissner masses and therefore chromomagnetic stability.     

Dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking at T = 0 and T ≠ 0 in the Schwinger-Dyson equation with lattice QCD data

Dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking (DCSB) in QCD is investigated in the Schwinger-Dyson (SD) formalism based on lattice QCD data. From the quenched lattice data for the quark propagator in the Landau gauge, we extract the SD integral kernel function, the product of the quark-gluon vertex and the polarization factor in the gluon propagator, in an Ansatz-independent manner. We find that the SD kernel function exhibits the characteristic behavior of nonperturbative physics, such as infrared vanishing and strong enhancement at the intermediate-energy region around p 0.6GeV. The infrared and intermediate energy region (0.4GeV < p < 1.5GeV) is found to be most relevant for DCSB from analysis on the relation between the SD kernel and the quark mass function. We apply the lattice-QCD-based SD equation to thermal QCD, and calculate the quark mass function at the finite temperature. Spontaneously broken chiral symmetry is found to be restored at high temperature above 110 MeV.