Search

A symmetry-preserving approach to the two valence-body continuum bound-state problem is used to calculate the elastic electromagnetic form factors of the $\rho$-meson and subsequently to study the evolution of vector-meson form factors with current-quark mass. To facilitate a range of additional comparisons, $K^\ast$ form factors are also computed. The analysis reveals that: vector mesons are larger than pseudoscalar mesons; composite vector mesons are non-spherical, with magnetic and quadrupole moments that deviate $\sim 30$\% from point-particle values; in many ways, vector-meson properties are as much influenced by emergent mass as those of pseudoscalars; and vector meson electric form factors possess a zero at spacelike momentum transfer. Qualitative similarities between the electric form factors of the $\rho$ and the proton, $G_E^p$, are used to argue that the character of emergent mass in the Standard Model can force a zero in $G_E^p$. Morover, the existence of a zero in vector meson electric form factors entails that a single-pole vector meson dominance model can only be of limited use in estimating properties of off-shell vector mesons, providing poor guidance for systems in which the Higgs-mechanism of mass generation is dominant., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

Solutions and their evolutions of the quark gap equation are studied within the Nambu-Jona--Lasinio model, which is a basic issue for studying the QCD phase structure and locating the possible critical end point. It is shown that in the chiral limit case of the vacuum, chiral symmetry will hold if the coupling strength $G$ is small, then the system only has the Wigner solution at $M=0$. If increasing $G$, two symmetric minima will appear as the positive and `negative' Nambu solutions, however, the solution $M=0$ now corresponds to a maximum instead of a minimum of the thermodynamical potential, so is not a physically stable state anymore (we call it `pseudo-Wigner solution'). Besides, it is shown that as the current quark mass $m$ increases, the pseudo-Wigner solution will become negative, and disappear together with the negative Nambu solution if $m$ is large enough. Similar things happen if we increase the temperature or quark chemical potential $\mu$. Some interesting phenomenon is, from some $\mu$ a second local minimum will show up. As $\mu$ increases gradually, it will be stabler than the Nambu solution, survives even the Nambu solution disappears, and approaches $m$, which are just the features of the Wigner solution we expect., Comment: version accepted for publication in the European Physical Journal C

Within the framework of Dyson-Schwinger equations of QCD, we study the finite volume effects on the chiral phase transition, especially the influence on the position of the possible pseudo-critical end point (pCEP). The results show that in the chiral limit case (the current quark mass $m=0$), the absolute value of quark condensate decreases for smaller volumes, and more interestingly, so does the pseudo-critical temperature $T_c(\mu=0)$, which is in agreement with the Polyakov Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model result and opposite to the Polyakov linear sigma model prediction. These conclusions hold for $m>0$ case in our calculations. Moreover, the results of pCEP as a function of different volumes show that $T$ of pCEP also decreases for smaller volumes, but $\mu$ of pCEP will increase, which are qualitatively more close to Polyakov linear sigma model results. For our model setup, results for systems with a size larger than (5 fm)$^3$ closely approximate those from infinite volume, but if the volume is smaller, the corrections are non-negligible, even significantly affect signatures of the results from an infinite system. There also exists some possibility that, if the system size is too small, the whole phase transition would be crossover, which means no pCEP exists at all. It is no doubt that, finite volume effects deserve further researches., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

A symmetry-preserving truncation of the two-body light-quark bound-state problem in relativistic quantum field theory is used to calculate the leading-twist parton distribution amplitudes (PDAs) of scalar systems, both ground-state and radial excitations, and the radial excitations of vector mesons. Owing to the fact that the scale-independent leptonic decay constant of a scalar meson constituted from equal-mass valence-constituents vanishes, it is found that the PDA of a given scalar system possesses one more zero than that of an analogous vector meson. Consequently, whereas the mean light-front relative momentum of the valence-constituents within a vector meson is zero, that within a scalar meson is large, an outcome which hints at a greater role for light-front angular momentum in systems classified as $P$-wave in quantum mechanical models. Values for the scale-dependent decay constants of ground-state scalar and vector systems are a by-product of this analysis, and they turn out to be roughly equal, viz. $\simeq 0.2\,$GeV at an hadronic scale. In addition, it is confirmed that the dilation characterising ground-state PDAs is manifest in the PDAs of radial excitations too. The impact of $SU(3)$-flavour symmetry breaking is also considered. When compared with pseudoscalar states, it is a little stronger in scalar systems, but the size is nevertheless determined by the flavour-dependence of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and the PDAs are still skewed toward the heavier valence-quark in asymmetric systems., Comment: 10 pages, 3 tables, 5 figures

A symmetry-preserving truncation of the two-body bound-state problem in relativistic quantum field theory is used to compute the leading-twist parton distribution amplitudes (PDAs) for the first radial excitations of the $\pi$- and $K$-mesons. In common with ground states in these channels, the PDAs are found to be dilated with respect to the relevant conformal-limit form and skewed toward the heavier valence-quark in asymmetric systems. In addition, the PDAs of radially-excited pseudoscalar mesons are not positive definite, owing to the fact that dynamical chiral symmetry breaking (DCSB) forces the leptonic decay constant of such states to vanish in the chiral limit. These results highlight that DCSB is expressed visibly in every pseudoscalar meson constituted from light-quarks. Hence, so long as its impact is empirically evident in the pseudoscalar members of a given spectrum level, it is unlikely that chiral symmetry is restored in any of the hadrons that populate this level., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures