Differences between heavy and light quarks

TL;DR

This paper investigates the differences in the behavior of light and heavy quarks using the Dyson-Schwinger equation, revealing distinct mass functions and meson mass relationships.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of quark mass functions and meson mass scaling, highlighting differences between light and heavy quarks.

Findings

Light quark mass function sharply increases below 1 GeV.

Heavy quark mass function remains approximately constant in the infrared.

Heavy-meson masses scale linearly with current-quark masses.

Abstract

The quark Dyson-Schwinger equation shows that there are distinct differences between light and heavy quarks. The dynamical mass function of the light quarks is characterised by a sharp increase below 1 GeV, whereas the mass function of the heavy quarks is approximately constant in this infrared region. As a consequence, the heavy-meson masses increase linearly with the current-quark masses, whereas the light pseudoscalar meson masses are proportional to the square root of the current-quark masses.