The dimensionally reduced effective theory for quarks in high-temperature QCD

We show that QCD undergoes a partial dimensional reduction at high temperatures also in the quark sector. In the kinematic region relevant to screening physics, where the lowest Matsubara modes are close to their “mass shells”, all static Green functions involving both quarks and gluons are reproducible in the high-T limit by a renormalizable three-dimensional Lagrangian up to order ²(T) 1/1nT. This three-dimensional theory only contains explicitly the lightest bosonic and fermionic Matsubara modes, while the heavier modes correct the tree-level couplings and generate extra local vertices. We also find that the quark degrees of freedom that have been retained in the reduced theory are non-relativistic in the high-T limit. We then improve our result to order ⁴(T) through an explicit non-relativistic expansion, in the spirit of the heavy-quark effective theory. This effective theory is relevant for studying QCD screening phenomena with observables made from quarks, e.g. mesonic and baryonic currents, already at temperatures not much higher than the chiral transition temperature T_c.     

Collective Perspective on Advances in Dyson-Schwinger Equation QCD

We survey contemporary studies of hadrons and strongly interacting quarks using QCD's Dyson-Schwinger equations, addressing the following aspects: confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking; the hadron spectrum; hadron elastic and transition form factors, from small- to large-Q²; parton distribution functions; the physics of hadrons containing one or more heavy quarks; and properties of the quark gluon plasma.     

Collective Perspective on Advances in Dyson–Schwinger Equation QCD

We survey contemporary studies of hadrons and strongly interacting quarks using QCD's Dyson-Schwinger equations, addressing the following aspects: confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking; the hadron spectrum; hadron elastic and transition form factors, from small-to large-Q2; parton distribution functions; the physics of hadrons containing one or more heavy quarks; and properties of the quark gluon plasma.     

The pion velocity at chiral restoration and the vector manifestation

We study the effects of Lorentz non-invariance on the physical pion velocity at the critical temperature T_c in an effective theory of hidden local symmetry (HLS) with the “vector manifestation” fixed point. We match at a “matching scale” Λ_M the axial-vector current correlator in the HLS with the one in the operator product expansion for QCD, and present the matching condition to determine the bare pion velocity. We find that the physical pion velocity, which is found to be one at T=T_c when starting from the Lorentz invariant bare HLS, remains close to one with the Lorentz non-invariance, v_π(T_c)=0.83–0.99. This result is quite similar to the pion velocity in dense matter.     

Modelling the QCD phase transition with an effective Lagrangian of light and massive hadrons

The temperature dependence of quark and gluon condensates in QCD as precursor of the chiral and deconfining phase transition is modelled with a conformally extended nonlinear σ-model including broken chiral and scale invariance. The model is further enlarged by including (free) heavier hadrons. Within this frame we then study the interplay of QCD scale breaking effects and heavier hadrons in chiral symmetry restoration.     

Chiral symmtry of Wilson fermions at finite temperature

Chiral properties of Wilson fermions at finite temperature are investigated by numerical methods. We show that when the quark mass is properly defined, for a given β and K (hopping parameter), its value is independent of whether the system is in the high-temperature phase or in the low-temperature phase. The temperature dependence of the pion screening mass at the chiral limit where the quark mass vanishes is consistent with the physical picture that the spontaneously broken chiral symmetry is recovered at T = T_c.     

Gluon condensates,chiral symmetry breaking and pion wave-function

We consider here chiral symmetry breaking in quantum chromodynamics arising from gluon condensates in vacuum. Through coherent states of gluons simulating a mean field type of approximation, we show that the off-shell gluon condensates of vacuum generate a mass-like contribution for the quarks, giving rise to chiral symmetry breaking. We next note that spontaneous breaking of global chiral symmetry links the four component quark field operator to the pion wave function. This in turn yields many hadronic properties in the light quark sector in agreement with experiments, leading to the conclusion that low energy hadron properties are primarily driven by the vacuum structure of quantum chromodynamics.     

Final-state interactions and single-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering

Recent measurements from the HERMES and SMC Collaborations show a remarkably large azimuthal single-spin asymmetries A_UL and A_UT of the proton in semi-inclusive pion leptoproduction γ^*(q)p→πX. We show that final-state interactions from gluon exchange between the outgoing quark and the target spectator system lead to single-spin asymmetries in deep inelastic lepton–proton scattering at leading twist in perturbative QCD; i.e., the rescattering corrections are not power-law suppressed at large photon virtuality Q² at fixed x_bj. The existence of such single-spin asymmetries requires a phase difference between two amplitudes coupling the proton target with J^z_p=±1/2 to the same final-state, the same amplitudes which are necessary to produce a nonzero proton anomalous magnetic moment. We show that the exchange of gauge particles between the outgoing quark and the proton spectators produces a Coulomb-like complex phase which depends on the angular momentum L^z of the proton's constituents and is thus distinct for different proton spin amplitudes. The single-spin asymmetry which arises from such final-state interactions does not factorize into a product of distribution function and fragmentation function, and it is not related to the transversity distribution δq(x,Q) which correlates transversely polarized quarks with the spin of the transversely polarized target nucleon.     

Quark condensation, induced symmetry breaking and color superconductivity at high density

The phase structure of hadronic matter at high density relevant to the physics of compact stars and relativistic heavy-ion collisions is studied in a low-energy effective quark theory. The relevant phases that figure are (1) chiral condensation, (2) diquark color condensation (color superconductivity) and (3) induced Lorentz-symmetry breaking (“ISB”). For a reasonable strength for the effective four-Fermi current–current interaction implied by the low-energy effective quark theory for systems with a Fermi surface we find that the “ISB” phase sets in together with chiral symmetry restoration (with the vanishing quark condensate) at a moderate density while color superconductivity associated with scalar diquark condensation is pushed up to an asymptotic density. Consequently, color superconductivity seems rather unlikely in heavy-ion collisions although it may play a role in compact stars. Lack of confinement in the model makes the result of this analysis only qualitative but the hierarchy of the transitions we find seems to be quite robust.     

The influence of fragmentation models in the production of hadron jets in electron–positron annihilation

The analysis of electron–positron annihilations to hadrons at high energies shows that apart from two-jet events, there are also signs of three-jet events which are interpreted according to the QCD, as a gluon radiated by a quark. In this paper, we investigate the fragmentation of quarks and gluons to hadron jets. We show that gluon jets have a higher multiplicity compared to quark jets of the same energy. Furthermore, inclusion of different flavours in the distributions shows that quark jets are flavour-dependent, but gluon jets are not. The differences between quark and gluon jets also manifest themselves in the fragmentation functions. We observe that the fragmentation for gluon jet is softer than that for quark jet, because the radiation of soft gluons is larger for gluon jets and that gluon cannot be present as a valence parton inside a produced hadron. We provide possible explanations for these features in this paper.     

Mixed quark–gluon condensate at finite temperature and density in the global color symmetry model

We study the properties of mixed quark–gluon condensate at finite temperature and chemical potential in the framework of global color symmetry model. In comparing with the quark condensate, we confirm that both of these condensates give the same information about chiral phase transition. We also find that the ratio of these two condensates is insensitive to the temperature T and the chemical potential μ, which supports the conclusion obtained recently by the authors using quenched lattice QCD.     

On soft gluon emission and the transverse momentum properties of final state particles

We discuss the infrared problem in a theory with confined quarks and gluons. In QED, the infrared cutoff depends on the adjustable experimental energy resolution. For QCD, the physical observables of the asymptotic final state are the hadron momenta whereas the gluon momenta do not correspond to observable quantities. Thus the energy resolution of a “gluon detector” is determined by the hadronic mass scale. In particular, we study the effect of soft gluon emission on the transverse momentum of the hadrons.     

AdS/QCD and Applications of Light-Front Holography

Light-front holography leads to a rigorous connection between hadronic amplitudes in a higher dimensional anti-de Sitter(AdS) space and frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in(3 + 1)-dimensional physical space-time,thus providing a compelling physical interpretation of the AdS/CFT correspondence principle and AdS/QCD,a useful framework which describes the correspondence between theories in a modified AdS 5 background and confining field theories in physical space-time.To a first semiclassical approximation,where quantum loops and quark masses are not included,this approach leads to a single-variable light-front Schro¨dinger equation which determines the eigenspectrum and the light-front wavefunctions of hadrons for general spin and orbital angular momentum.The coordinate z in AdS space is uniquely identified with a Lorentz-invariant coordinate ζ which measures the separation of the constituents within a hadron at equal light-front time.The internal structure of hadrons is explicitly introduced and the angular momentum of the constituents plays a key role.We give an overview of the light-front holographic approach to strongly coupled QCD.In particular,we study the photon-to-meson transition form factors(TFFs) FMγ(Q 2) for γ→ M using light-front holographic methods.The results for the TFFs for the η and η ' mesons are also presented.Some novel features of QCD are discussed,including the consequences of confinement for quark and gluon condensates.A method for computing the hadronization of quark and gluon jets at the amplitude level is outlined.     

The spectral density of the QCD Dirac operator and patterns of chiral symmetry breaking

We study the spectrum of the QCD Dirac operator for two colors with fermions in the fundamental representation and for two or more colors with adjoint fermions. For N_f flavors, the chiral flavor symmetry of these theories is spontaneously broken according to SU (2N_f → Sp (2N_f) and SU (N_f → O (N_f), respectively, rather than the symmetry breaking pattern SU (N_f) × SU (N_f) → SU (N_f) for QCD with three or more colors and fundamental fermions. In this paper we study the Dirac spectrum for the first two symmetry breaking patterns. Following previous work for the third case we find the Dirac spectrum in the domain λ Λ_QCD by means of partially quenched chiral perturbation theory. In particular, this result allows us to calculate the slope of the Dirac spectrum at λ = 0. We also show that for λ 1/L₂ Λ_QCD (wing L the linear size fo the system) the Dirac spectrum is given by a chiral Random Matrix Theory with the symmetries of the Dirac operator.     

New Results in Light-Front Phenomenology

The light-front quantization of gauge theories in light-cone gauge provides a frame-independent wavefunction representation of relativistic bound states, simple forms for current matrix elements, explicit unitarity, and a trivial vacuum. In this talk I review the theoretical methods and constraints which can be used to determine these central elements of QCD phenomenology. The freedom to choose the light-like quantization four-vector provides an explicitly covariant formulation of light-front quantization and can be used to determine the analytic structure of light-front wave functions and define a kinematical definition of angular momentum. The AdS/CFT correspondence of large N_C supergravity theory in higher-dimensional anti-de Sitter space with supersymmetric QCD in four-dimensional space-time has interesting implications for hadron phenomenology in the conformal limit, including an all-orders demonstration of counting rules for exclusive processes. String/gauge duality also predicts the QCD power-law behavior of light-front Fock-state hadronic wavefunctions with arbitrary orbital angular momentum at high momentum transfer. The form of these near-conformal wavefunctions can be used as an initial ansatz for a variational treatment of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian. The light-front Fock-state wavefunctions encode the bound state properties of hadrons in terms of their quark and gluon degrees of freedom at the amplitude level. The nonperturbative Fock-state wavefunctions contain intrinsic gluons, and sea quarks at any scale Q with asymmetries such as . Intrinsic charm and bottom quarks appear at large x in the light-front wavefunctions since this minimizes the invariant mass and off-shellness of the higher Fock state. In the case of nuclei, the Fock state expansion contains “hidden color” states which cannot be classified in terms of nucleonic degrees of freedom. I also briefly review recent analyses which show that some leading-twist phenomena such as the diffractive component of deep inelastic scattering, single-spin asymmetries, nuclear shadowing and antishadowing cannot be computed from the LFWFs of hadrons in isolation.Work supported by Department of Energy contract DE-AC02-76SF00515     

Flavour-spin symmetry and weak decays of heavy hadrons

Recent developments in the theory of heavy quarks have increased the prospects for the study of non-perturbative QCD in the weak decays of heavy mesons and baryons and for the reliable determination of some of the parameters of the Standard Model. It has been made possible due to the discovery of a spin-flavour symmetry for heavy quarks which arises in QCD when quark mass is taken to infinity. Certain properties in hadrons containing a heavy quark then become independent of its mass and spin. These ideas have tremendous impact on the phenemenology of heavy hadrons. In particular, these symmetries give rise to restrictive relations among weak decay amplitudes and reduce the number of independent form factors. By relating various matrix elements and fixing normalization of some matrix elements, the heavy quark symmetry has enhanced our predictive ability, allowing in some cases to bypass the difficulties of understanding hadronic structure.     

Kugo-Ojima confinement and QCD Green''s functions in covariant gauges

In Landau gauge QCD the Kugo-Ojima confinement criterion and its relations to the infrared behaviour of the gluon and ghost propagators are reviewed. It is demonstrated that the realization of this confinement criterion (which is closely related to the Gribov-Zwanziger horizon condition) results from quite general properties of the ghost Dyson-Schwinger equation. The numerical solutions for the gluon and ghost propagators obtained from a truncated set of Dyson-Schwinger equations provide an explicit example for the anticipated infrared behaviour. The results are in good agreement, also quantitatively, with corresponding lattice data obtained recently. The resulting running coupling approaches a fixed point in the infrared, (0) = 8.915/N_c. Solutions for the coupled system of Dyson-Schwinger equations for the quark, gluon and ghost propagators are presented. Dynamical generation of quark masses and thus spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry takes place. In the quenched approximation the quark propagator functions agree well with those of corresponding lattice calculations. For a small number of light flavours the quark, gluon and ghost propagators deviate only slightly from the ones in quenched approximation. While the positivity violation of the gluon spectral function is manifest in the gluon propagator, there are no clear indications of analogous positivity violations for quarks so far.     

Investigation of light scalar resonances a0(980)/ƒ0(980) with ANKE

A program to investigate the light scalar resonances a₀(980)/ƒ₀(980) in hadronic interactions via their decay into the πη and channels has started at the ANKE spectrometer of COSY-Jülich. As the first step the reactions pp → dπ⁺X and pp → dK⁺X have been measured at two energies, T_p = 2.65 GeV and 2.83 GeV. The status of the analysis at T_p = 2.65 GeV is presented. A total cross section of about 50 nb has been determined for the reaction .     

“Gluelump” spectrum and adjoint source potential in lattice QCD3

We calculate the potential between “quarks” which are in the adjoint representation of SU(2) color in the three-dimensional lattice theory. We work in the scaling region of the theory and at large quark separations R. We also calculate the masses M_Qg of color-singlet bound states formed by coupling an adjoint quark to adjoint glue (“gluelumps”). Good scaling behavior is found for the masses of both magnetic (angular momentum J = 0) and electric (J = 1) gluelumps, and the magnetic gluelump is found to be the lowest-lying state. It is naively expected that the potential for adjoint quarks should saturate above a separation R_scr where it becomes energetically favorable to produce a pair of gluelumps. We obtain a good estimate of the naive screening distance R_scr. However we find little evidence of saturation in the potential out to separations R of about 1.5R_scr.