Infrared properties of the strong interaction: topological configurations and entanglement

• Grant number: 23/18483-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2024
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Gastão Inácio Krein
• Grantee: David Rosa Junior
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/14335-0 - ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research: a regional center for Theoretical Physics, AP.ESP
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/20896-3 - Topological charge of the Yang-Mills vacuum in terms of center vortices, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

The understanding of the theory of strong interactions in the infrared regime is related to fundamental questions, such as the origin of the mass of the proton and the neutron. The impossibility of using perturbative techniques led to the need to consider other approaches to the problem. In this regard, first-principles calculations in the lattice showed that field configurations known as center vortices are able to capture the main properties of the theory in the non-perturbative regime. One of the goals of this project is to use this approach to investigate the properties of the vacuum of the theory of the gluons. In this respect, the following topics will be investigated: i) the generation of topological charge, which is an important observable for the determination of the mass of the $\eta'$ meson; ii) the 't Hooft loop, an order parameter for confinement in pure Yang-Mills theory. Another topic which will be investigated is the entanglement between the quarks and the antiquarks in Quantum Chromodynamics, by means of a non-gaussian variational ansatz for the vacuum, where the interaction between the fermions and the gluons will be taken into account.