Dynamics of confined gluons

Abstract

Propagation of gluons in the confining vacuum is studied in the framework of the background perturbation theory, where nonperturbative background contains confining correlators. Two settings of the problem are considered. In the first the confined gluon is evolving in time together with static quark and antiquark forming the one-gluon static hybrid. The hybrid spectrum is calculated in terms of string tension and is in agreement with earlier analytic and lattice calculations. In the second setting the confined gluon is exchanged between quarks and the gluon Green's function is calculated, giving rise to the Coulomb potential modified at large distances. The resulting screening radius of 0.5 fm presents a serious problem when confronting with lattice and experimental data. A possible solution of this discrepancy is discussed.

Comments: 17 pages, no figures; v2: minor numerical changes in the table