Exact Lattice Identities and Continuum-Limit Dyson--Schwinger Equations for Yang-Mills Theory

Abstract

Starting from SU(N) on the lattice, we give a rigorous derivation of the Dyson--Schwinger equations in the continuum limit. We formulate the Dyson--Schwinger identities for the lattice Yang--Mills theory directly in terms of the link variables $U_\mu(m)\in SU(N)$, exploiting the invariance of the Haar measure under left group translations. This provides an exact lattice derivation of the corresponding master equation for the Wilson action, expressed through left-invariant Lie derivatives acting on individual links. Because the construction is carried out directly on the compact gauge group, it avoids the ambiguities associated with introducing Lie-algebra valued gauge potentials as primary integration variables at finite lattice spacing. For practical applications, in a second part we then break down the gauge degree of freedom by choosing Feynman gauge. We analyze the continuum-limit form of the resulting lattice identities and derive equations for the one- and two-point connected functions. Under a further simplifying reduction, these equations close to a tractable scalar system. Our results establish a direct bridge between exact lattice identities and the functional equations commonly used in continuum nonperturbative studies of Yang--Mills theory.