The generalised infrared structure of the gluon propagator

Abstract

Gauge theory correlators are potentially more singular in the infrared than those in non-gauge theories. We determine the implications that these singularities have on the spectrum of the theory, proving that the appearance of generalised poles implies the existence of on-shell states with fixed mass, but zero norm. For quantum chromodynamics these poles have direct relevance for the confinement of coloured states. Using lattice data for the Landau gauge gluon propagator we subsequently test for the presence of these poles, establishing that the data is indeed consistent with such a component.