Dynamical gluon mass generation at finite temperature

• Grant number: 25/03330-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2030
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Arlene Cristina Aguilar
• Grantee: Marcelo Antonio Sakaguti Dória
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin (IFGW). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this project, we aim to perform a detailed analysis of the feasibility of triggering the Schwinger mechanism and the consequent generation of a dynamical mass for the gluon in the context of finite-temperature QCD. This investigation will be carried out by combining the Schwinger-Dyson and the Bethe-Salpeter Equations within the imaginary-time formalism. In particular, we will focus on obtaining a nontrivial solution to the Bethe-Salpeter Equation, which describes the formation of massless poles in the three-gluon vertex at finite temperature, which signalizes the dynamical mass generation for the gluon. The project is divided into three main research directions, which can be developed independently. More specifically, we will analyze: (i) the feasibility of the Schwinger mechanism in the context of dimensional reduction, where, in the high-temperature limit, QCD in 4 dimensions is effectively described by a Yang-Mills theory in 3 dimensions with an adjoint scalar field; (ii) whether the Schwinger mechanism is responsible for the emergence of a mass in the transverse component of the gluon propagator i.e., in the chromomagnetic propagator) in 4 dimensional QCD at finite temperature. To address this, we will solve the Bethe-Salpeter Equation, which describes the formation of massless poles for different temperature values; (iii) the different phases of finite-temperature QCD, using the Schwinger-Dyson Equations for the quark propagator within the Matsubara formalism. (AU)