Infrared asymptotic dynamics of gauge invariant charged fields: QED versus QCD

Abstract

The freedom one has in constructing locally gauge invariant charged fields in gauge theories is analyzed in full detail and exploited to construct, in QED, an electron field whose two-point function W(p), up to the fourth order in the coupling constant, is normalized with on-shell normalization conditions and is, nonetheless, infrared finite; as a consequence the radiative corrections vanish on the mass shell p2=μ2 and the free field singularity is dominant, although, in contrast with quantum field theories with mass gap, the eigenvalue μ2 of the mass operator is not isolated. The same construction, carried out for the quark in QCD, is not sufficient for cancellation of infrared divergences to take place in the fourth order. The latter divergences, however, satisfy a simple factorization equation. We speculate on the scenario that could be drawn about infrared asymptotic dynamics of QCD, should this factorization equation be true in any order of perturbation theory.