Quarks, gluons, colour: Facts or fiction?

TL;DR

The paper introduces a novel method to identify underlying particle and symmetry structures in quantum field theories from local gauge invariant observables, revealing confined particles like quarks and gluons without relying on gauge fields or indefinite metrics.

Contribution

It presents a new general approach to uncover hidden particles and symmetries in quantum field theories directly from observable data, independent of gauge choices.

Findings

Successfully applied to the Schwinger model

Reveals confined particles without gauge fields

Provides gauge-invariant intrinsic definitions

Abstract

A general method is presented which allows one to determine from the local gauge invariant observables of a quantum field theory the underlying particle and symmetry structures appearing at the lower (ultraviolet) end of the spatio--temporal scale. Particles which are confined to small scales, i.e., do not appear in the physical spectrum, can be uncovered in this way without taking recourse to gauge fields or indefinite metric spaces. In this way notions such as quark, gluon, colour symmetry and confinement acquire a new and intrinsic meaning which is stable under gauge or duality transformations. The method is illustrated by the example of the Schwinger model.