We present rigorous upper and lower bounds for the zero-momentum gluon propagator D(0) of Yang-Mills theories in terms of the average value of the gluon field. This allows us to perform a controlled extrapolation of lattice data to infinite volume, showing that the infrared limit of the Landau-gauge gluon propagator in SU(2) gauge theory is finite and nonzero in three and in four space-time dimensions. In the two-dimensional case, we find D(0)=0, in agreement with Maas. We suggest an explanation for these results. We note that our discussion is general, although we apply our analysis only to pure gauge theory in the Landau gauge. Simulations have been performed on the IBM supercomputer at the University of São Paulo.

Green's functions are a central element in the attempt to understand non-perturbative phenomena in Yang-Mills theory. Besides the propagators, 3-point Green's functions play a significant role, since they permit access to the running coupling constant and are an important input in functional methods. Here we present numerical results for the two non-vanishing 3-point Green's functions in 3d pure SU (2) Yang-Mills theory in (minimal) Landau gauge, i.e. the three-gluon vertex and the ghost-gluon vertex, considering various kinematical regimes. In this exploratory investigation the lattice volumes are limited to 20 3 and 30 3 at β = 4.2 and β = 6.0. We also present results for the gluon and the ghost propagators, as well as for the eigenvalue spectrum of the Faddeev-Popov operator. Finally, we compare two different numerical methods for the evaluation of the inverse of the Faddeev-Popov matrix, the point-source and the plane-wave-source methods.

Vertices are of central importance for constructing QCD bound states out of the individual constituents of the theory, i.e. quarks and gluons. In particular, the determination of three-point vertices is crucial in non-perturbative investigations of QCD. We use numerical simulations of lattice gauge theory to obtain results for the 3-point vertices in Landau-gauge SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in three and four space-time dimensions for various kinematic configurations. In all cases considered, the ghost-gluon vertex is found to be essentially tree-level-like, while the three-gluon vertex is suppressed at intermediate momenta. For the smallest physical momenta, reachable only in three dimensions, we find that some of the three-gluon-vertex tensor structures change sign.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; minor modifications and references added, version to appear in PR