Spectral Function Sum Rules In Quantum Chromodynamics

The aim of the book is to give an introduction to the method of QCD Spectral Sum Rules and to review its developments. After some general introductory remarks, Chiral Symmetry, the Historical Developments of the Sum Rules and the necessary materials for perturbative QCD including the MS regularization and renormalization schemes are discussed. The book also gives a critical review and some improvements of the wide uses of the QSSR in Hadron Physics and QSSR beyond the Standard Hadron Phenomenology. The author has participated actively in this field since 1978 just before the expanding success of the SVZ QSSR.

This concise book provides the necessary background to allow interested readers to launch original research projects on the subject matter. Currently, this material is not available from one single source, and is either spread out over numerous journal publications, or covered in long and technical monographs. At the core of this book lies the sum rule approach to obtain analytic results in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the current theory of strong interactions among quarks and gluons. This method fully complements Lattice QCD, the corresponding computational approach based on discretizing QCD on a space-time lattice. Applications include standard determinations of hadronic particle properties with extensions to finite temperature and density, and possibly involving the presence of extreme magnetic fields. The latter cases include stellar objects (e.g. neutron stars and magnetars) as well as high-energy proton–proton and heavy-ion collisions. Further topics concern the determination of the fundamental parameters of QCD, e.g. quark masses and the quark–gluon couplings, the hadronic contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, and electromagnetic coupling at the the W-boson mass scale.

The author develops a novel analysis method for QCD sum rules (QCDSR) by applying the maximum entropy method (MEM) to arrive at an analysis with less artificial assumptions than previously held. This is a first-time accomplishment in the field. In this thesis, a reformed MEM for QCDSR is formalized and is applied to the sum rules of several channels: the light-quark meson in the vector channel, the light-quark baryon channel with spin and isospin 1/2, and several quarkonium channels at both zero and finite temperatures. This novel technique of combining QCDSR with MEM is applied to the study of quarkonium in hot matter, which is an important probe of the quark-gluon plasma currently being created in heavy-ion collision experiments at RHIC and LHC.

Quantum chromodynamics is the fundamental theory of strong interactions. It is a physical theory describing Nature. Lectures on Quantum Chromodynamics concentrates, however, not on the phenomenological aspect of QCD; books with comprehensive coverage of phenomenological issues have been written. What the reader will find in this book is a profound discussion on the theoretical foundations of QCD with emphasis on the nonperturbative formulation of the theory: What is gauge symmetry on the classical and on the quantum level? What is the path integral in field theory? How to define the path integral on the lattice, keeping intact as many symmetries of the continuum theory as possible? What is the QCD vacuum state? What is the effective low energy dynamics of QCD? How do the ITEP sum rules work? What happens if we heat and/or squeeze hadronic matter? Perturbative issues are also discussed: How to calculate Feynman graphs? What is the BRST symmetry? What is the meaning of the renormalization procedure? How to resum infrared and collinear singularities? And so on.The book is an outgrowth of the course of lectures given by the author for graduate students at ITEP in Moscow. Much extra material has been added.

The quark confinement mechanism is one of the most difficult problems in particle physics, and is listed as the 7 difficult mathematical problems of the new millennium. The first person who first solves this problem will be awarded a prize of US$ 1 Million by Cray Mathematics Institute. This volume is useful for the systematic understanding of quark confinement and nonperturbative aspects of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) from the wide viewpoints of mathematical physics, lattice QCD physics and quark-hadron physics. It covers the current studies of nonperturbative QCD: quark confinement mechanism; topologies in QCD (instantons, monopoles and vortices); BRS quartet mechanism for color confinement; lattice QCD calculations for quarks, gluons and hadrons; dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and hadrons.

The third edition of this outstanding volume has been extensively revised and enlarged to cover all new aspects in Quantum chromodynamics. It first reviews relativistic quantum field theory and details scattering theory in the framework of scalar quantum electrodynamics. The book then introduces the gauge theory of quarks and gluons. In addition, more advanced chapters present a through discussion of perturbative and nonperturbative techniques in state-of-the-art QCD. Throughout, worked-out examples provide hands-on experience for students in theoretical physics. Research scientists will also find the book an ideal reference.

An introduction to QCD, covering recent developments as well as giving a historical overview of the subject. Emphasis is placed on the method of QCD spectral sum rules, with applications to hadronic systems. Suitable for graduate students and researchers in high-energy and nuclear physics, both theoretical and experimental.