Physics of the gluon mass gap

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Ferreira, Mauricio N., Papavassiliou, Joannis, Pawlowski, Jan M., Wink, Nicolas
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Ferreira, Mauricio N.
Papavassiliou, Joannis
Pawlowski, Jan M.
Wink, Nicolas
author_facet Ferreira, Mauricio N.
Papavassiliou, Joannis
Pawlowski, Jan M.
Wink, Nicolas
contents It has long been known that the gluon propagator in Landau-gauge QCD exhibits a mass gap; and its emergence has been ascribed to the action of the Schwinger mechanism in the gauge sector of QCD. In the present work, we relate this property to the physical mass gap of QCD by considering two observables associated with confinement and chiral symmetry breaking, namely the confinement-deconfinement transition temperature and the pion decay constant, respectively. It turns out that the first observable is linearly proportional to the gluon mass gap, a fact that allows us to assign a direct physical meaning to this scale. Moreover, we identify three distinct momentum regimes in the gluon propagator, ultraviolet, intermediate, and deep infrared, and assess their impact on the aforementioned observables. Both observables are sensitive to the first two regions of momenta, where functional approaches essentially coincide, but are insensitive to the third, deep infrared, regime. The combined information is used for a simple fit for the gluon propagator, all of whose parameters admit a clear physical interpretation. Finally, we discuss how this fit can help us access the intertwined dynamics of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking in QCD-type theories.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_20568
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Physics of the gluon mass gap
Ferreira, Mauricio N.
Papavassiliou, Joannis
Pawlowski, Jan M.
Wink, Nicolas
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Lattice
High Energy Physics - Theory
It has long been known that the gluon propagator in Landau-gauge QCD exhibits a mass gap; and its emergence has been ascribed to the action of the Schwinger mechanism in the gauge sector of QCD. In the present work, we relate this property to the physical mass gap of QCD by considering two observables associated with confinement and chiral symmetry breaking, namely the confinement-deconfinement transition temperature and the pion decay constant, respectively. It turns out that the first observable is linearly proportional to the gluon mass gap, a fact that allows us to assign a direct physical meaning to this scale. Moreover, we identify three distinct momentum regimes in the gluon propagator, ultraviolet, intermediate, and deep infrared, and assess their impact on the aforementioned observables. Both observables are sensitive to the first two regions of momenta, where functional approaches essentially coincide, but are insensitive to the third, deep infrared, regime. The combined information is used for a simple fit for the gluon propagator, all of whose parameters admit a clear physical interpretation. Finally, we discuss how this fit can help us access the intertwined dynamics of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking in QCD-type theories.
title Physics of the gluon mass gap
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Lattice
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20568