Comparison of gluon flux-tube distributions for quark-diquark and quark-antiquark hadrons

TL;DR

This study uses lattice QCD to compare gluon flux-tube distributions in quark-diquark and quark-antiquark hadrons, revealing similar string tensions and flux tube profiles.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of gluon flux tubes in quark-diquark versus quark-antiquark systems using lattice QCD.

Findings

Quark-diquark and quark-antiquark flux tubes have similar string tensions.

Flux tube profiles are similar in radius and vacuum suppression.

Gluon field distributions support the diquark as a fundamental color source.

Abstract

The distribution of gluon fields in hadrons is of fundamental interest in QCD. Using lattice QCD we have observed the formation of gluon flux tubes within 3 quark (baryon) and quark plus antiquark (meson) systems for a wide variety of spatial distributions of the color sources. In particular we have investigated three quark configurations where two of the quarks are close together and the third quark is some distance away, which approximates a quark plus diquark string. We find that the string tension of the quark-diquark string is the same as that of the quark-antiquark string on the same lattice. We also compare the longitudinal and transverse profiles of the gluon flux tubes for both sets of strings, and find them to be of similar radii and to have similar vacuum suppression.