The nature of confined states

We show that in spite of charge confinement in the Schwinger model and its nonconfinement in (QED)4, the charged states in the two theories have many features in common. A convenient infrared regularization procedure is introduced to facilitate the study of large-distance behaviors in the Schwinger model, particularly those properties that are relevant ot the question of when a charged state is physical. One difference that emerges between the two theories is that when a charged state in the Schwinger model is made physical while its energy is kept bounded, the charge goes off to infinity. Thr end-product could be considered neutral if the charge is defined as the limit of local measurements. On the other hadn, if one attempts to change a local charged state in the Schwinger model into a physical state by transportin the localization region to asymptotic distances, the state may end up in either a THETA-sector or the corresponding (THETA + π)-sector, depending on the direction of transport. A possible generalization of this THETA-mixing property to quark-like states in QCD is commented upon. (orig.)