English

Entropy in quantum chromodynamics

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2012-03-30 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We review the role of zero-temperature entropy in several closely-related contexts in QCD. The first is entropy associated with disordered condensates, including <Gμν2>< G_{\mu\nu}^2>. The second is vacuum entropy arising from QCD solitons such as center vortices, yielding confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. The third is entanglement entropy, which is entropy associated with a pure state, such as the QCD vacuum, when the state is partially unobserved and unknown. Typically, entanglement entropy of an unobserved three-volume scales not with the volume but with the area of its bounding surface. The fourth manifestation of entropy in QCD is the configurational entropy of light-particle world-lines and flux tubes; we argue that this entropy is critical for understanding how confinement produces chiral symmetry breakdown, as manifested by a dynamically-massive quark, a massless pion, and a <qˉq>< \bar{q}q> condensate.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1203.6618,
  title  = {Entropy in quantum chromodynamics},
  author = {John M. Cornwall},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1203.6618},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

22 pages, 2 figures. Preprint version of invited review for Modern Physics Letters A

R2 v1 2026-06-21T20:42:02.556Z