arXiv subjects

Reinhard Alkofer

Publications and source records attributed to Reinhard Alkofer.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Particle self-bunching in the Schwinger effect in spacetime-dependent electric fields

Non-perturbative electron-positron pair creation (Schwinger effect) is studied based on the equal-time Wigner formalism in 1+1 dimensions. An ab initio calculation of the Schwinger effect in the presence of a simple space- and time-dependent electric field pulse is performed for the first time, allowing for the calculation of the time evolution of observable quantities such as the charge density, the particle number density or the total number of created particles. We predict a new self-bunching effect of charges in phase space due to the spatial and temporal structure of the pulse.

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arXiv2011

Delta and Omega masses in a three-quark covariant Faddeev approach

We present the solution of the Poincare-covariant Faddeev equation for the Delta(1232) and Omega(1672) baryons. The covariant structure of the corresponding baryon amplitudes and their decomposition in terms of internal spin and orbital angular momentum is explicitly derived. The interaction kernel is truncated to a rainbow-ladder dressed-gluon exchange such that chiral symmetry and its dynamical breaking are correctly implemented. The resulting physical masses agree reasonably with experiment and their evolution with the pion mass compares favorably with lattice calculations. Evidence for the non-sphericity of the Delta-resonance is discussed as well.

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arXiv2011

A study of the influence of the gauge group on the Dyson-Schwinger equations for scalar-Yang-Mills systems

The particular choice of the gauge group for Yang-Mills theory plays an important role when it comes to the influence of matter fields. In particular, both the chosen gauge group and the representation of the matter fields yield structural differences in the quenched case. Especially, the qualitative behavior of the Wilson potential is strongly dependent on this selection. Though the algebraic reasons for this observation is clear, it is far from obvious how this behavior can be described besides using numerical simulations. Herein, it is investigated how the group structure appears in the Dyson-Schwinger equations, which as a hierarchy of equations for the correlation functions have to be satisfied. It is found that there are differences depending on both the gauge group and the representation of the matter fields. This provides insight into possible truncation schemes for practical calculations using these equations.

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arXiv2011

Features of ghost-gluon and ghost-quark bound states related to BRST quartets

The BRST quartet mechanism in infrared Landau gauge QCD is investigated. Based on the observed positivity violation for transverse gluons $A_{\mathrm {tr}}$ the field content of the non-perturbative BRST quartet generated by $A_{\mathrm {tr}}$ is derived. To identify the gluon's BRST-daughter state as well as the Faddeev-Popov--charge conjugated second parent state, a truncated Bethe-Salpeter equation for the gluon-ghost bound state in the adjoint colour representation is derived and studied. This equation is found to be compatible with the so-called scaling solutions of functional approaches. Repeating the same construction for quarks instead of $A_{\mathrm {tr}}$ leads in a similar way to a truncated Bethe-Salpeter equation for the quark-ghost bound state in the fundamental representation. Within the scaling solution the infrared divergence of the quark-gluon vertex is exactly the right one to make this Bethe-Salpeter equation infrared consistent.

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arXiv2011

Infrared scaling solutions beyond the Landau gauge: The maximally Abelian gauge and Abelian infrared dominance

Functional equations like exact renormalization group and Dyson-Schwinger equations have contributed to a better understanding of non-perturbative phenomena in quantum field theories in terms of the underlying Green functions. In Yang-Mills theory especially the Landau gauge has been used, as it is the most accessible gauge for these methods. The growing understanding obtained in this gauge allows to proceed to other gauges in order to obtain more information about the relation of different realizations of the confinement mechanism. In the maximally Abelian gauge first results are very encouraging as a variant of Abelian infrared dominance is found: The Abelian part of the gauge field propagator is enhanced at low momenta and thereby dominates the dynamics in the infrared. Its role is therefore similar to that of the ghost propagator in the Landau gauge, where one denotes the corresponding phenomenon as ghost dominance. Also the ambiguity of two different types of solutions (decoupling and scaling) exists in both gauges. Here we present how the two solutions are related in the maximally Abelian gauge. The intricacy of the system of functional equations in this gauge required the development of some new tools and methods as, for example, the automated derivation of the equations by the program DoFun. We also present results for linear covariant and ghost anti-ghost symmetric gauges.

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arXiv2011

The non-perturbative BRST quartets generated by transverse gluons or quarks in Landau gauge

The BRST quartet mechanism is briefly reviewed. A special emphasis is given to the distinction of perturbative versus non-perturbative quartets. The field contents of the non-perturbative BRST quartets generated by transverse gluons or quarks in Landau gauge are presented. Corresponding truncated Bethe-Salpeter equations for the respective first daughter and second parent states are derived. It is discussed in which sense these equations provide evidence for the existence of bound states as daughter states in non-perturbative BRST quartets. It is noted that within the scaling solution of functional approaches the infrared divergence of the quark-gluon vertex is exactly the right one tomake the respective Bethe-Salpeter equation infrared consistent.

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arXiv2011

On Confinement, Chiral Symmetry Breaking, and the UA(1) anomaly in Functional Approaches

The so-called decoupling and scaling solutions of functional equations of Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory are briefly reviewed. In both types of solutions the positivity violation seen in the gluon propagator is taken as an indication of gluon confinement. In the scaling solution the resulting infrared singularities of the quark-gluon vertex are responsible for the linear potential between static quarks and are therefore signaling quark confinement. A corresponding description of the UA(1) anomaly in functional approaches is only known for the scaling solution. Nevertheless, it seems puzzling at first sight that quark confinement is related to the dynamical and anomalous breaking of chiral symmetry in a self-consistent manner: One obtains either all these phenomena or none. For the scaling solution also fundamental scalar fields are confined. This provides evidence that within functional approaches static confinement is an universal property of the gauge sector even though it is formally represented in the functional equations of the matter sector.

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arXiv2011

Momentum Spectra for Dynamically Assisted Schwinger Pair Production

Recently the dynamically assisted Schwinger mechanism, i.e., electron-positron pair production from vacuum by a combination of laser pulses with different time scales has been proposed. The corresponding results, which suggest that the rate of produced pairs is significantly enhanced by dynamical effects, are verified. Employing the framework of quantum kinetic theory intrinsically enables us to additionally provide momentum space information on the generated positron spectrum.

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arXiv2011

QCD Green's Functions and Phases of Strongly-Interacting Matter

After presenting a brief summary of functional approaches to QCD at vanishing temperatures and densities the application of QCD Green's functions at non-vanishing temperature and vanishing density is discussed. It is pointed out in which way the infrared behavior of the gluon propagator reflects the (de-)confinement transition. Numerical results for the quark propagator are given thereby verifying the relation between (de-)confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking (restoration). Last but not least some results of Dyson-Schwinger equations for the color-superconducting phase at large densities are shown.

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arXiv2010

On the Infrared Behaviour of Landau Gauge Yang-Mills Theory with Differently Charged Scalar Fields

Recently it has been argued that infrared singularities of the quark-gluon vertex of Landau gauge QCD can confine static quarks via a linear potential. It is demonstrated that the same mechanism also may confine fundamental scalar fields. This opens the possibility that within functional approaches static confinement is an universal property of the gauge sector even though it is formally represented in the functional equations of the matter sector. The colour structure of Dyson-Schwinger equations for fundamental and adjoint scalar fields is determined for the gauge groups SU(N) and G(2) exhibiting interesting cancelations purely due to colour algebra.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Schwinger pair production in space- and time-dependent electric fields: Relating the Wigner formalism to quantum kinetic theory

The non-perturbative electron-positron pair production (Schwinger effect) is considered for space- and time-dependent electric fields $\vec{E}(\vec{x},t)$. Based on the Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner (DHW), formalism we derive a system of partial differential equations of infinite order for the sixteen irreducible components of the Wigner function. In the limit of spatially homogeneous fields the Vlasov equation of quantum kinetic theory (QKT) is rediscovered. It is shown that the quantum kinetic formalism can be exactly solved in the case of a constant electric field $E(t)=E_0$ and the Sauter-type electric field $E(t)=E_0\operatorname{sech}^2(t/τ)$. These analytic solutions translate into corresponding expressions within the DHW formalism and allow to discuss the effect of higher derivatives. We observe that spatial field variations typically exert a strong influence on the components of the Wigner function for large momenta or for late times.

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arXiv2010

On baryon properties from a covariant Faddeev approach

The Poincare-covariant Faddeev equation and its solution in rainbow-ladder truncation, i.e., with a generalized gluon exchange as irreducible two-particle-interaction, is presented. The covariant decomposition of baryon amplitudes, representing relativistic three-quark states, is discussed and explicitly given for the Delta-baryon. The calculated Delta mass compares favourably with the experimental one.

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arXiv2010

Non-perturbative analysis of the Gribov-Zwanziger action

In the non-perturbative regime the usual gauge fixing is not sufficient due to the Gribov problem. To deal with it one can restrict the integration in the path integral to the first Gribov region by using the Gribov-Zwanziger action. In its local form it features additional auxiliary fields which mix with the gluon at the two-point level. We present an explicit infrared analysis of this action. We show that from the two possible scaling solutions obtained previously only one remains: It coincides exactly with the results from the Faddeev-Popov action, i.e., the ghost propagator is infrared enhanced and the gluon propagator infrared suppressed and the corresponding power law behavior is described by only one parameter kappa=0.5953. This corroborates the argument by Zwanziger that for functional equations it suffices to take into account the appropriate boundary conditions and no explicit restriction in the path integral measure is required.

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arXiv2010

Delta and Omega electromagnetic form factors in a Dyson-Schwinger/Bethe-Salpeter approach

We investigate the electromagnetic form factors of the Delta and the Omega baryons within the Poincare-covariant framework of Dyson-Schwinger and Bethe-Salpeter equations. The three-quark core contributions of the form factors are evaluated by employing a quark-diquark approximation. We use a consistent setup for the quark-gluon dressing, the quark-quark bound-state kernel and the quark-photon interaction. Our predictions for the multipole form factors are compatible with available experimental data and quark-model estimates. The current-quark mass evolution of the static electromagnetic properties agrees with results provided by lattice calculations.

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arXiv2010

On the infrared scaling solution of SU(N) Yang-Mills theories in the maximally Abelian gauge

An improved method for extracting infrared exponents from functional equations is presented. The generalizations introduced allow for an analysis of quite complicated systems such as Yang-Mills theory in the maximally Abelian gauge. Assuming the absence of cancellations in the appropriately renormalized integrals the only consistent scaling solution yields an infrared enhanced diagonal gluon propagator in support of the Abelian dominance hypothesis. This is explicitly shown for SU(2) and subsequently verified for SU(N), where additional interactions exist. We also derive the most infrared divergent scaling solution possible for vertex functions in terms of the propagators' infrared exponents. We provide general conditions for the existence of a scaling solution for a given system and comment on the cases of linear covariant gauges and ghost anti-ghost symmetric gauges.

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arXiv2010

Infrared singularities in Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory

We present a more detailed picture of the infrared regime of Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory. This is done within a novel framework that allows one to take into account the influence of finite scales within an infrared power counting analysis. We find that there are two qualitatively different infrared fixed points of the full system of Dyson-Schwinger equations. The first extends the known scaling solution, where the ghost dynamics is dominant and gluon propagation is strongly suppressed. It features in addition to the strong divergences of gluonic vertex functions in the previously considered uniform scaling limit, when all external momenta tend to zero, also weaker kinematic divergences, when only some of the external momenta vanish. The second solution represents the recently proposed decoupling scenario where the gluons become massive and the ghosts remain bare. In this case we find that none of the vertex functions is enhanced, so that the infrared dynamics is entirely suppressed. Our analysis also provides a strict argument why the Landau gauge gluon dressing function cannot be infrared divergent.

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arXiv2010

On the Infrared Behavior of Landau Gauge Yang-Mills Theory with a Fundamentally Charged Scalar Field

Recently it has been shown that infrared singularities of Landau gauge QCD can confine static quarks via a linearly rising potential. We show that the same mechanism can also provide a confining interaction between charged scalar fields in the fundamental representation. This confirms that within this scenario static confinement is a universal property of the gauge sector even though it is formally represented in the functional equations of the matter sector. The simplifications compared to the fermionic case make the scalar system an ideal laboratory for a detailed analysis of the confinement mechanism in numerical studies of the functional equations as well as in gauge-fixed lattice simulations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Infrared analysis of Dyson-Schwinger equations taking into account the Gribov horizon in Landau gauge

The low momentum behavior of the Landau gauge Gribov-Zwanziger action is investigated using the respective Dyson-Schwinger equations. Because of the mixing of the gluon and the auxiliary fields four scenarios can be distinguished for the infrared behavior. Two of them lead to inconsistencies and can be discarded. Another one corresponds to the case where the auxiliary fields behave exactly like the Faddeev-Popov ghosts and the same scaling relation as in standard Landau gauge, $\ka_A+2\ka_c=0$, is valid. Even the parameter $\ka$ is found to be the same, 0.595. The mixed propagators, which appear, are suppressed in all loops, and their anomalous infrared exponent can also be determined. A fourth case provides an even stricter scaling relation that includes also the mixed propagators, but possesses the same qualitative feature, i.e. the propagators of the Faddeev-Popov ghost and the auxiliary fields are infrared enhanced and the mixed and the gluon propagators are infrared suppressed. In this case the system of equations to obtain the parameter $\ka$ is non-linear in all variables.

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