Soft asymptotics with mass gap

TL;DR

This paper investigates the ultraviolet behavior of the gluon mass function in QCD, suggesting that a vanishing gluon condensate implies a zero vacuum energy and a consistent mass gap, indicating a softer ultraviolet regime.

Contribution

It demonstrates that current gluon mass function calculations imply a vanishing gluon condensate and vacuum energy, linking ultraviolet softness with the existence of a mass gap in QCD.

Findings

Gluon condensate likely vanishes based on mass function analysis.

Vacuum energy in massless QCD may be zero.

Ultraviolet behavior is consistent with a mass gap.

Abstract

From the operator product expansion the gluon condensate controls a certain power law correction to the ultraviolet behavior of the gauge theory. This is reflected by the asymptotic behavior of the effective gluon mass function as determined by its Schwinger-Dyson equation. We show that the current state of the art determination of the gluon mass function by Binosi, Ibanez and Papavassiliou points to a vanishing gluon condensate. If this is correct then the vacuum energy also vanishes in massless QCD. This result can be interpreted as a statement about a softness in the ultraviolet behavior and the consistency of this behavior with a mass gap.