Two-loop corrections to the QCD propagators within the Curci-Ferrari model

TL;DR

This study evaluates two-loop correlation functions in the Curci-Ferrari model with quarks, showing that gluon, ghost, and quark dressing functions are well described perturbatively, especially at two-loop order, aligning with lattice QCD data.

Contribution

It demonstrates that two-loop perturbative calculations in the CF model accurately describe certain QCD correlation functions, extending previous one-loop findings and including quark effects.

Findings

Gluon and ghost dressing functions match lattice data at one-loop.

Quark dressing functions are well described at two-loop order.

Quark mass function agrees with data for heavier quarks but shows tension near physical light quarks.

Abstract

We evaluate all two-point correlation functions of the Curci-Ferrari (CF) model in four dimensions and in the presence of mass-degenerate fundamental quark flavors, as a natural extension of an earlier investigation in the quenched approximation. In principle, the proper account of chiral symmetry breaking ($\chi$SB) and the corresponding dynamical generation of a quark mass function within the CF model requires one to go beyond perturbation theory \cite{Pelaez:2020ups}. However, it is interesting to assess whether a perturbative description applies to correlation functions that are not directly sensitive to $\chi$SB, such as the gluon, ghost and quark dressing functions. We compare our two-loop results for these form factors to QCD lattice data in the two flavor case for two different values of the pion mass, one that is relatively far from the chiral limit, and one that is closer to the physical value. Our results confirm that the QCD gluon and ghost dressing functions are well described by a perturbative approach within the CF model, as already observed at one-loop order in Ref. \cite{Pelaez:2014mxa}. Our new main result is that the quark dressing function is also well captured by the perturbative approach, but only starting at two-loop order, as also anticipated in Ref. \cite{Pelaez:2014mxa}. The quark mass function predicted by the CF model at two-loop order is in good agreement with the data if the quarks are not too light but shows some clear tension with respect to the two-loop CF dressing functions in the close to physical case, as expected. Interestingly, however, we find that there is much less tension between the non-perturbative quark mass function, as it can be obtained from lattice simulations or from \cite{Pelaez:2020ups}, and the two-loop CF dressing functions, which confirms the perturbative nature of the latter.