Instantons and meson correlation functions in QCD

Various QCD correlators are calculated in the instanton liquid model in zeromode approximation and 1/N _c expansion. Previous works are extended by including dynamical quark loops. In contrast to the original “perturbative” 1/N _c approximation, not all quark loops are suppressed. Renormalization of the instanton density allows the identification of the density with the gluon condensate even in presence of dynamical quark loops. In the flavor singlet meson correlators a chain of quark bubbles survives the N _c → ∞ limit causing a massive η′ in the pseudoscalar correlator while keeping massless pions in the triplet correlator. The correlators are plotted and meson masses and couplings are obtained from a spectral fit. They are compared to the values obtained from numerical studies of the instanton liquid and to experimental results.     

Screening of instantons in the quark gas

The grand partition function of quark matter is developed about an arbitrary classical gauge field configuration in a systematic weak coupling expansion. In the presence of a finite density massless quark gas the instanton induced effective quark interaction is modified by a factor exp[?2N_F(ω?)²], i.e. the baryon number chemical potential μ acts as an intrinsic infrared cutoff on the instanton scale size ?. The equation of state of the quark matter is also briefly discussed.     

Finite-size effects in the Gross-Neveu model with allowance for isospin and baryon chemical potentials

The properties of the (1 + 1)-dimensional massless Gross-Neveu model were studied for a compactified space S ¹, as well as with allowance for nonzero values of the baryon (µ) and isospin (µ _I ) chemical potentials. Our investigation was performed in the limit of a large number of fermion colors, N _c . It is shown that, for L→∞(case of an unbounded volume), the pion-condensation phase characterized by zero quark density is formed at any nonzero value of µ _I and a small value of µ. For any finite value of L (case of a bounded volume), the phase portrait of the model contains a pion-condensation phase where the quark density is nonzero. Thus, finite dimensions of the system being considered may serve as a factor that facilitates the formation of a pion-condensation phase in quark matter with a nonzero baryon density. At the same time, the phase where chiral symmetry is broken may exist only at very large values of L.     

Instanton vacuum in thermal QCD

The effects of instanton-anti-instanton interactions in high-temperature QCD with colour SU(2) are studied with and without quarks. The instanton potential proves to have no repulsive core, thus creating troubles with the definition of nonperturbative contributions to physical quantities. Also the chiral condensate is calculated, and it is shown to vanish if number of quark flavoursN _f≧2, whereas forN _f=1 it is nonzero for the arbitrary high temperature.     

Instanton liquid at a finite density of quark matter

For the case of finite quark and baryon densities, the interaction of light quarks with an instanton liquid is considered in a phase that involves a nonvanishing chiral condensate. The generating functional is considered in the tadpole approximation, and the behavior of the dynamical quark mass and the behavior of the chiral condensate, as well as the behavior of the instanton-liquid (gluon-condensate) density, which grows slightly with the quark chemical potential, are explored. Arguments are presented in favor of the statement that the quark-density threshold for the emergence of a diquark condensate grows sizably owing to interaction with the instanton liquid.     

Instanton liquid at finite temperature and chemical potential of quarks

Instanton liquid in heated and strongly interacting matter is studied using the variational principle. The dependence of the instanton liquid density (gluon condensate) on the temperature and the quark chemical potential is determined under the assumption that, at finite temperatures, the dominant contribution is given by an ensemble of calorons. The respective one-loop effective quark Lagrangian is used.     

Nonperturbative contribution to the quark form factor within the instanton model

The nonperturbative effects in the quark form factor are considered in the Wilson loop formalism, within the framework of the instanton liquid model. For the integration path corresponding to this form factor, the explicit expression for the vacuum expectation value of the Wilson operator is found to the leading order. It is shown that the instantons produce the power-like corrections to the perturbative result, which are comparable in magnitude with the perturbative part at the scale of order of the inverse average instanton size. It is demonstrated that the instanton contributions to the quark form factor are exponentiated to high orders in the small instanton density parameter.Received: 30 September 2002, Published online: 22 October 2003PACS: 12.38.-t Quantum chromodynamics - 11.15.Tk Other nonperturbative techniques     

$VA\widetilde{V}$ correlator within the instanton vacuum model

The correlator of vector and non-singlet axial-vector currents in the external electromagnetic field is calculated within the instanton liquid model of the QCD vacuum. In general the correlator has two Lorentz structures: longitudinal, w_L, and transversal, w_T, with respect to the axial-vector index. Within the instanton model the saturation of the anomalous w_L structure is demonstrated. It is known that in the chiral limit the transversal structure w_T is free from perturbative corrections. In this limit within the instanton model we calculate the transversal invariant function w_T at arbitrary space-like momentum transfer q and show the absence of power corrections to this structure at large q². Instead there arise exponential corrections to w_T at large q² reflecting non-local properties of the QCD vacuum. The slope of w_T at zero virtuality, the QCD vacuum magnetic susceptibility of the quark condensate and its momentum dependence are estimated.Received: 7 May 2005, Published online: 6 July 2005     

Instantons: Dynamical mass generation,chiral Ward identities and the topological charge correlation function

When dynamical mass generation resulting from the breakdown of chiral symmetry is taken into account, instanton dynamics treated within the dilute gas approximation may satisfy the constraints on the quark condensates and the topological charge correlation function derived by Crewther from an analysis of the chiral Ward identities assuming the absence of a physical axial U(1) Goldstone boson. From a consideration of the contribution of the η′ to the topological charge correlation function, a relationship is derived in which m_η′²f_η′² is proportional to the vacuum energy density.     

Properties of lightest mesons at finite temperature and quark/baryon chemical potential in the instanton model of the QCD vacuum

The paper is focused on calculating the finite temperature and quark/baryon chemical potential dependencies of the quark condensate and the π-and σ-meson masses in the subcritical region in the instanton model of the QCD vacuum. The impact of phononlike excitation of instanton liquid on the characteristics of the σ meson in such an environment is also examined.     

Instanton effects in quark form factor and quark-quark scattering at high energy

The nonperturbative effects in the high-energy processes involving strongly interacting particles are studied within the instanton liquid model of the QCD vacuum (ILM) by using the Wilson integral framework. The detailed analysis of nonperturbative contributions to the electromagnetic quark form factor is presented considering the structure of the instanton-induced effects in the evolution equation describing the high energy behavior of the form factor. It is shown that the instantons yield in high energy limit the logarithmic corrections to the amplitudes which are exponentiated in small instanton density parameter. By using the Gaussian interpolation of the constrained instanton solution, we show that the all-order multi-instanton contribution is well approximated by the weak field limit result. The role of the instantons in high energy diffractive quark-quark scattering, in particular, in formation of the soft Pomeron, is also considered. We show that within the ILM the C-odd diffractive amplitude is suppressed as 1/s compared to the C-even one. The further applications of the developed approach in studying the nonperturbative effects in high energy hadronic processes are briefly discussed.     

Modified action for light quarks in the instanton vacuum

The procedure of averaging in an instanton medium in quarks with any number of flavors is discussed. It is shown that the effect of the instanton medium is equivalent to an interaction of light quarks with dynamically generated mass (four-quark interaction N _f = 2) and massless bosonic spinor fields (ghosts). The fact that the instanton liquid is dilute makes it possible to use perturbation theory. The article is published in the original.     

The structure of the multi-instanton gas

We parametrize the q-instanton solutions of an SU(2) gauge theory in terms of the positions of 2q constituent particles or “instanton quarks”. Explicit computations of lowest order quantum fluctuations about the q = 1 and q = 2 solutions show that the short-distance interaction between instanton quark pairs is logarithmic. Extending these interactions to arbitrary q, we describe the multi-instanton gas as a plasma of instanton quarks.     

Density of states in a mesoscopic SNS junction

The semiclassical theory of proximity effects predicts a gap E _g～?D/L ² in the excitation spectrum of a long diffusive superconductor/normal-metal/superconductor (SNS) junction. Mesoscopic fluctuations lead to anomalously localized states in the normal part of the junction.As a result, a nonzero, yet exponentially small, density of states (DOS) appears at energies below E _g. In the framework of the supermatrix nonlinear σ model, these prelocalized states are due to the instanton configurations with broken supersymmetry. The exact result for the DOS near the semiclassical threshold is found, provided the dimensionless conductance of the normal part G _N is large. The case of poorly transparent interfaces between the normal and superconductive regions is also considered. In this limit, the total number of subgap states may be large.     

Density of prelocalized states in mesoscopic NS systems

The semiclassical theory of the proximity effect predicts the formation of a gap E _g ～?D/L ² in the excitation spectrum of a diffusive contact between a normal metal and a superconductor (NS). Mesoscopic fluctuations lead to the emergence of states localized anomalously in the normal metal and weakly linked with the superconducting bank, creating a nonzero density of states for energies lower than E _g . In this review, the behavior of the density of quasiparticle states below a quasi-classical gap is considered for various geometries of the NS system (special attention is paid to SNS junctions) and for the problem of a superconductor with a low concentration of magnetic impurities, in which a similar effect is observed. Analysis is mainly carried out on the basis of a fully microscopic method of the supermatrix σ model; in this method, a nonzero density of states emerges due to instanton configurations with broken supersymmetry. In addition, the results of an alternative approach proceeding from the idea of universality of the spectra of random Hamiltonians with the given symmetry are reviewed. In situations studied using both methods, the results are identical. They include the exact expression for the mean density of states of an NS system in the vicinity of E _g . In the framework of 1D and 2D σ models, the subgap density of states is determined with an exponential accuracy. The contacts with a poor transparency of the NS interface are also considered. It is shown that the number of subgap states in the case of low transparency is much greater than unity.

     

On the chiral phase transition in hadronic matter

A qualitative analysis of the chiral phase transition in QCD with two massless quarks and nonzero baryon density is performed. It is assumed that, at zero baryonic density, ρ=0, the temperature phase transition is of the second order. Due to a specific power dependence of baryon masses on the chiral condensate, the phase transition becomes of the first order at the temperature T=T_ph(ρ) for ρ>0. At temperatures T_cont(ρ)> _T>_Tph(ρ), there is a mixed phase consisting of the quark phase (stable) and the hadron phase (unstable). At the temperature T=T_cont(ρ), the system experiences a continuous transition to the pure chirally symmetric phase.     

Instantons and the hyperfine splitting ofB andB Smesons

In this short note we wish to point out that the instanton model, which was theoretically fascinating, has recently found application in explaining the hyperfine splitting of mesons and baryons. In particular, the flavour independence ofM _v ² -M _P ² (i.e. the squared mass difference of the vector and the pseudoscalar mesons), known to be constant for the strange and non-strange mesons in theu,d and the charm quark sectors, have recently been shown to be the same for the beauty sector through experiments. This flavour independence and the magnitude of the splitting agrees remarkably well with the instanton model.     

Vacuum Condensates from the Modification of Global Color Symmetry Model

Based on the quark propagator in the instanton dilute liquid approximation, we have determined the quark condensate , the mixed quark gluon condensate g,μνσ^μνq) and the four-quark condensate at the mean-field level in the framework of global color symmetry model. The numerical calculation shows that our result is compatible with the range obtained within other nonperturbative approaches. In particular, we have found that even at the mean-field level the naive vacuum saturation approximation is not a good approximation when we consider nonlocal four-quark condensate.     

Neutrino emissivities in 2SC color-superconducting quark matter

The phase structure and equation of state for two-flavor quark matter under compact star constraints is studied within a nonlocal chiral quark model. Chiral symmetry breaking leads to rather large, density dependent quark masses at the phase transition to quark matter. The influence of diquark pairing gaps and quark masses on density dependent emissivities for the direct URCA is discussed. Since m _u > m _d , the direct URCA process due to quark masses cannot occur. We present cooling curves for model quark stars and discuss their relation to observational data. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Scattering off of an instanton

We consider the scattering of a classical colored particle off an instanton. That is, we investigate Wong's equations (or equivalently, the Kaluza-Klein geodesic equations) for a colorSU(2) particle under the influence of a Euclidean instanton. We solve the equations in the limit in which the instanton becomes singular. Our main result is that particles with head-on trajectories scatter off the instanton with a scattering angle of π/3. This angle is independent of the magnitude of the color charge and velocity of the particle as long as both are nonzero. The plane in which the scattering takes place is determined by the particle's initial position and color charge. We also solve for the geodesics for the corresponding (singular) Kaluza-Klein metric onS ⁷.