Confinement, chiral symmetry, and the lattice

TL;DR

This paper reviews the complex relationship between confinement, chiral symmetry breaking, and the lattice in QCD, emphasizing non-perturbative phenomena that cannot be explained by traditional perturbation theory.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive qualitative review of how chiral symmetry, anomalies, and lattice methods interrelate in understanding QCD's non-perturbative aspects.

Findings

Non-perturbative phenomena are essential for understanding confinement and chiral symmetry breaking.

A coherent qualitative picture of the interplay between these properties has emerged.

Lattice methods are crucial for studying non-perturbative QCD phenomena.

Abstract

Two crucial properties of QCD, confinement and chiral symmetry breaking, cannot be understood within the context of conventional Feynman perturbation theory. Non-perturbative phenomena enter the theory in a fundamental way at both the classical and quantum level. Over the years a coherent qualitative picture of the interplay between chiral symmetry, quantum mechanical anomalies, and the lattice has emerged and is reviewed here.