Perturbative gauge theory in a background

Abstract

Motivated by the gluon condensate in QCD we study the perturbative expansion of a gauge theory in the presence of gauge bosons of vanishing momentum, in the specific case of an abelian theory. The background is characterised by a dimensionful parameter $\Lambda$ affecting only the on-shell prescription of the free (abelian) gluon propagator. When summed to all orders in $g\Lambda$ the modification is equivalent to evaluating standard Green functions in a pure gauge field with an imaginary gauge parameter $\propto \Lambda$. We show how to calculate the corresponding dressed Green functions, which are Poincare and gauge covariant. We evaluate the expressions for the dressed quark and $q \bar q$ propagators, imposing as boundary condition that they approach the standard perturbative form in the short-distance limit ($|p^2|\to\infty$). The on-shell ($p^2=m^2$) pole of the free quark propagator is removed for any $\Lambda > 0$, and replaced by a discontinuity which vanishes exponentially with $p^2$. The dressing introduces an effective interaction between quarks and antiquarks which is enhanced at low relative 3-momentum. Further study should allow to identify the (bound) eigenstates of propagation and determine whether they define a unitary S-matrix. When the quark mass is zero there is a euclidean propagator solution which breaks chiral symmetry spontaneously. We study some aspects of the massless pion contribution to axial vector correlators and derive the $\pi q \bar q$ form factor.