Generalized coherent states in QCD from asymptotic symmetries

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between asymptotic symmetries of QCD and vacuum transitions induced during scattering. Starting with the Fock vacuum in the far past, the infinity of conservation laws associated to (non-Abelian) asymptotic symmetries in QCD can be used to determine the vacuum in the far future. We show that the corresponding asymptotic Hilbert space in the future is generated by a class of dressed states in which each finite energy particle is dressed by a cloud of interacting soft gluons. We identify the precise structure of the dressing using conservation laws and show that the corresponding asymptotic states are equivalent to the generalised coherent states defined by Catani et al.