Modern Approaches to Non-Perturbative QCD and Other Confining Gauge Theories

The primary goal of this Special Issue was to create a collection of reviews on the modern approaches to the problem of quark confinement in QCD [...]

Four-pomeron vertex

The four-pomeron vertex is studied in the perturbative QCD. Its dominating terms of the leading (zeroth and first) orders in the coupling constant and subdominant in the number of colors are constructed. The vertex consists of two terms, one with a derivative in rapidity $$\partial _y$$ ∂ y and the other with the BFKL interaction between pomerons. The corresponding part of the action and equations of motion are found. The iterative solution of the latter is possible only for rapidities smaller than 2 and quite large coupling constant $$\alpha _s$$ α s , of the order or greater than unity, when the quadruple pomeron interaction is relatively small. Also iteration of the part with $$\partial _y$$ ∂ y is unstable in the infrared region and compels to introduce an infrared cut. The variational approach with simple trying functions allows to find the minimum of the action at $$\alpha _s$$ α s of the order 0.2 and rapidities up to 25. Numerical estimates for O–O collisions show that actually the influence of the quadruple pomeron interaction turns out to be rather small.

Determination of perturbative QCD coupling from ALEPH $$\tau $$ decay data using pinched Borel–Laplace and Finite Energy Sum Rules

We present a determination of the perturbative QCD (pQCD) coupling using the V+A channel ALEPH $$\tau $$ τ -decay data. The determination involves the double-pinched Borel–Laplace Sum Rules and Finite Energy Sum Rules. The theoretical basis is the Operator Product Expansion (OPE) of the V+A channel Adler function in which the higher order terms of the leading-twist part originate from a model based on the known structure of the leading renormalons of this quantity. The applied evaluation methods are contour-improved perturbation theory (CIPT), fixed-order perturbation theory (FOPT), and Principal Value of the Borel resummation (PV). All the methods involve truncations in the order of the coupling. In contrast to the truncated CIPT method, the truncated FOPT and PV methods account correctly for the suppression of various renormalon contributions of the Adler function in the mentioned sum rules. The extracted value of the $${\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}$$ MS ¯ coupling is $$\alpha _s(m_{\tau }^2) = 0.3116 \pm 0.0073$$ α s ( m τ 2 ) = 0.3116 ± 0.0073 [$$\alpha _s(M_Z^2)=0.1176 \pm 0.0010$$ α s ( M Z 2 ) = 0.1176 ± 0.0010 ] for the average of the FOPT and PV methods, which we regard as our main result. On the other hand, if we include in the average also the CIPT method, the resulting values are significantly higher, $$\alpha _s(m_{\tau }^2) = 0.3194 \pm 0.0167$$ α s ( m τ 2 ) = 0.3194 ± 0.0167 [$$\alpha _s(M_Z^2)=0.1186 \pm 0.0021$$ α s ( M Z 2 ) = 0.1186 ± 0.0021 ].

Next-to-leading-logarithm threshold resummation for exclusive B meson decays

We extend the threshold resummation of the large logarithms $$\ln x$$ ln x which appear in factorization formulas for exclusive B meson decays, x being a spectator momentum fraction, to the next-to-leading-logarithm (NLL) accuracy. It is shown that the NLL resummation effect provides suppression in the end-point region with $$x\sim 0$$ x ∼ 0 stronger than the leading-logarithm (LL) one, and thus improves perturbative analyses of the above processes. We revisit the $$B\rightarrow K\pi $$ B → K π decays under the NLL resummation in the perturbative QCD approach, and find that it induces up to 20% variation of the direct CP asymmetries in various modes relative to the LL results. Our method to avoid the Landau singularity in the inverse Mellin transformation causes at most 10% theoretical uncertainty.

The P-wave charmonium annihilation into two photons $$\chi _{c0, c2}\rightarrow \gamma \gamma $$ with high-order QCD corrections

In this paper, we present a new analysis on the P-wave charmonium annihilation into two photons up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections by using the principle of maximum conformality (PMC). The conventional perturbative QCD prediction shows strong scale dependence and deviates largely from the BESIII measurements. After applying the PMC, we obtain a more precise scale-invariant pQCD prediction, which also agrees with the BESIII measurements within errors, i.e. $$R={\Gamma _{\gamma \gamma }(\chi _{c2})} /{\Gamma _{\gamma \gamma }(\chi _{c0})}=0.246\pm 0.013$$ R = Γ γ γ ( χ c 2 ) / Γ γ γ ( χ c 0 ) = 0.246 ± 0.013 , where the error is for $$\Delta \alpha _s(M_\tau )=\pm 0.016$$ Δ α s ( M τ ) = ± 0.016 . By further considering the color-octet contributions, even the central value can be in agreement with the data. This shows the importance of a correct scale-setting approach. We also give a prediction for the ratio involving $$\chi _{b0, b2} \rightarrow \gamma \gamma $$ χ b 0 , b 2 → γ γ , which could be tested in future Belle II experiment.