Instanton effects and chiral symmetry breaking in QCD2

We show that $QCD_2$ with adjoint fermions involves instantons due to nontrivial $\pi_1[SU(N)/Z_N]~=~Z_N$. At high temperatures, quasiclassical approximation works and the action and the form of effective (with account of quantum corrections) instanton solution can be evaluated. Instanton presents a localized configuration with the size $\propto g^{-1}$. At $N=2$, it involves exactly 2 zero fermion modes and gives rise to fermion condensate $<\bar{\lambda}^a \lambda^a>_T$ whi...

'Constituent quarks' means massive quarks, in contrast to the nearly massless u,d,s quarks of the QCD lagrangian. The dynamical or constituent masses appear owing to the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in QCD. A realistic mechanism of the chiral symmetry breaking is provided by instantons. Therefore, I review the present status of the QCD instanton vacuum, emphasizing the mechanism of chiral symmetry breaking and of the generation of the constitutent quark mass. I end up...

We summarize our current understanding of instantons in the large N_c limit of QCD. We also present some recent results from simulations of the instanton liquid in QCD for N_c>3.

The main aspects of chiral symmetry in QCD are presented. The necessity of its spontaneous breakdown is explained. Some low-energy theorems are reviewed. The role of chiral effective Lagrangians in the formulation and realization of chiral perturbation theory is emphasized. The consequences of the presence of anomalies are sketched.

In this talk it is discussed the derivation of low-frequencies part of quark determinant and partition function. As a first application, quark condensate is calculated beyond chiral limit with the account of O(m), O(1/N_c), O(1/N_c m) and O(1/N_c m ln m) corrections. It is demonstrated complete correspondence of the results to chiral perturbation theory.

The properties of the QCD partition function at finite chemical potential are studied within the instanton liquid model. It is shown that the density dependence of the quark-induced instanton-antiinstanton (I-A) interaction leads to the formation of topologically neutral I-A pairs ('molecules'), resulting in a first order chiral phase transition at a critical chemical potential $\mu_q^c\simeq 310$ MeV. At somewhat higher densities ($\mu_q\ge360$ MeV), the quark Fermi surface ...

We review the theory and phenomenology of instantons in QCD. After a general overview, we provide a pedagogical introduction to semi-classical methods in quantum mechanics and field theory. The main part of the review summarizes our understanding of the instanton liquid in QCD and the role of instantons in generating the spectrum of light hadrons. We also discuss properties of instantons at finite temperature and the chiral phase transition. We give an overview over the impor...

A simple model for the instanton ensemble at finite temperature T is proposed, including ``random" and strongly correlated ``molecular" component. T-dependence of fermionic zero modes naturally leads to chiral symmetry restoration, without instanton suppression. Moreover, at $T=(1-2) T_c$ the non-perturbative effects due to ``molecules" are so strong, that they even dominate the global thermodynamics. % two figures are enclosed as .ps files

In this talk I present recent results on Lorentz covariant correlation functions $\langle q(p_1)\overline{q}(p_2)\rangle$ on the cone $p^2=0$. In particular, chiral symmetry breaking terms are constructed which resemble fermionic 2--point functions of 2--D CFT up to a scalar factor.

We explore the idea that the chiral phase transition in QCD can be described as a transition from a disordered instanton liquid to a strongly correlated phase of polarized instanton anti-instanton molecules. We find a number of non perturbative effects caused by the presence of instantons above T_c, among them the fact that instantons contribute to the euquation of state. We also study how instantons affect the propagation of light quarks at high temperature and determine the...