https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-014-2881-8
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Infrared saturation and phases of gauge theories with BRST symmetry
1
Institut für Physik, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, 8010 , Graz, Austria
2
Department of Physics, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 101 Warren Street, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA
3
Physics Department, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY, 10003, USA
* e-mail: valentin.mader@uni-graz.at
Received:
10
December
2013
Accepted:
29
April
2014
Published online:
20
May
2014
We investigate the infrared limit of the quantum equation of motion of the gauge boson propagator in various gauges and models with a BRST symmetry. We find that the saturation of this equation at low momenta distinguishes between the Coulomb, Higgs and confining phase of the gauge theory. The Coulomb phase is characterized by a massless gauge boson. Physical states contribute to the saturation of the transverse equation of motion of the gauge boson at low momenta in the Higgs phase, while the saturation is entirely due to unphysical degrees of freedom in the confining phase. This corollary to the Kugo–Ojima confinement criterion in linear covariant gauges also is sufficient for confinement in general covariant gauges with BRST and anti-BRST symmetry, maximal Abelian gauges with an equivariant BRST symmetry, non-covariant Coulomb gauge and in the Gribov–Zwanziger theory.
© SIF and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014
