Published May 13, 2013 | Version v1
Journal article

Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking as condensation of dynamical chirality

  • 1. The George Washington University, Washington, DC (United States)
  • 2. University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (United States)

Description

The occurrence of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking (SChSB) is equivalent to sufficient abundance of Dirac near-zeromodes. However, dynamical mechanism leading to breakdown of chiral symmetry should be naturally reflected in chiral properties of the modes. Here we offer such connection, presenting evidence that SChSB in QCD proceeds via the appearance of modes exhibiting dynamical tendency for local chiral polarization. These modes form a band of finite width Λch (chiral polarization scale) around the surface of otherwise anti-polarized Dirac sea, and condense. Λch characterizes the dynamics of the breaking phenomenon and can be converted to a quark mass scale, thus offering conceptual means to determine which quarks of nature are governed by broken chiral dynamics. It is proposed that, within the context of SU(3) gauge theories with fundamental Dirac quarks, mode condensation is equivalent to chiral polarization. This makes Λch an "order parameter" of SChSB, albeit without local dynamical field representation away from chiral limit. Several uses of these features, both at zero and finite temperature, are discussed. Our initial estimates are Λch≈150 MeV (Nf=0), Λch≈80 MeV (Nf=2+1, physical point), and that the strange quark is too heavy to be crucially influenced by broken chiral symmetry

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2013.03.041

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1016/j.physletb.2013.03.041;
arXiv
arXiv:1210.7849v2;
PII
S0370-2693(13)00266-9;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physics Letters. Section B
Journal Volume
722
Journal Issue
1-3
Journal Page Range
p. 160-166
ISSN
0370-2693
CODEN
PYLBAJ

INIS

Optional Information

Copyright
Copyright (c) 2013 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.