Instanton Triggered Chiral Symmetry Breaking, the U(1) Problem and a\n Possible Solution to the Strong CP Problem

2018/12/14 by William A. Bardeen, Bardeen, William A.
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Biofield Effects and Biophysics #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1812.06041

openalex publication_date 2018/12/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We argue that instantons play a crucial role in triggering the spontaneous\nbreaking of chiral symmetry in the physics of the three light quarks in quantum\nchromodynamics. However, instantons may also play an essential role in our\nunderstanding of the suppression of CP violation in the strong interactions. We\nrevive the possibility that the bare mass of the up quark is identically zero\nand the apparent small up quark mass is generated by the effective quark\ndynamics associated with instantons. In this case, the strong CP phase becomes\nunobservable and there is no strong CP violation.\n

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