Paper detail

Chiral polarization scale of QCD vacuum and spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking

It has recently been found that dynamics of pure glue QCD supports the low energy band of Dirac modes with local chiral properties qualitatively different from that of a bulk: while bulk modes suppress chirality relative to statistical independence between left and right, the band modes enhance it. The width of such chirally polarized zone - chiral polarization scale Lambda_ch - has been shown to be finite in the continuum limit at fixed physical volume. Here we present evidence that Lambda_ch remains non-zero also in the infinite volume, and is therefore a dynamical scale in the theory. Our experiments in N_f=2+1 QCD support the proposition that the same holds in the massless limit, connecting Lambda_ch to spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. In addition, our results suggest that thermal agitation in quenched QCD destroys both chiral polarization and condensation of Dirac modes at the same temperature T_ch > T_c.