Yang-Mills theory in Coulomb gauge

In this thesis we study the Yang-Mills vacuum structure by using the functional Schroedinger picture in Coulomb gauge. In particular we discuss the scenario of colour confinement, which was originally formulated by Gribov. After a short introduction, we recall some basic aspects of Yang-Mills theories, its canonical quantization in the Weyl gauge and the functional Schroedinger picture. We then consider the minimal Coulomb gauge and the Gribov problem of the gauge theory. The gauge fixing of the Coulomb gauge is done by using the Faddeev-Popov method, which enables the resolution of the Gauss law - the constraint on physical states. In the third chapter, we variationally solve the stationary Yang-Mills Schroedinger equation in Coulomb gauge for the vacuum state. Therefor we use a vacuum wave functional, which is strongly peaked at the Gribov horizon. The vacuum energy functional is calculated and minimized resulting in a set of coupled Schwinger-Dyson equations for the gluon energy, the ghost and Coulomb form factors and the curvature in gauge orbit space. Using the angular approximation these integral equations have been solved analytically in both the infrared and the ultraviolet regime. The asymptotic analytic solutions in the infrared and ultraviolet regime are reasonably well reproduced by the full numerical solutions of the coupled Schwinger-Dyson equations. In the fourth chapter, we investigate the dependence of the Yang-Mills wave functional in Coulomb gauge on the Faddeev-Popov determinant. (orig.)