Zero modes and the vacuum problem: A study of scalar adjoint matter in two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory via light-cone quantization

Abstract

SU(2) Yang-Mills theory coupled to massive adjoint scalar matter is studied in 1+1 dimensions using discretized light-cone quantization. This theory can be obtained from pure Yang-Mills theory in 2+1 dimensions via dimensional reduction. On the light cone, the vacuum structure of this theory is encoded in the dynamical zero mode of a gluon and a constrained mode of the scalar field. The latter satisfies a linear constraint, suggesting no nontrivial vacua in the present paradigm for symmetry breaking on the light cone. I develop a diagrammatic method to solve the constraint equation. In the adiabatic approximation I compute the quantum-mechanical potential governing the dynamical gauge mode. Because of a condensation of the lowest momentum modes of the dynamical gluons, a centrifugal barrier is generated in the adiabatic potential. In the present theory, however, the barrier height appears too small to make any impact in this model. Although the theory is superrenormalizable on naive power-counting grounds, the removal of ultraviolet divergences is nontrivial when the constrained mode is taken into account. The solution of this problem is discussed.