QCD as a quantum link model - art. no. 094502

QCD is constructed as a lattice gauge theory in which the elements of the l ink matrices are represented by non-commuting operators acting in a Hilbert space. The resulting quantum link model for QCD is formulated with a fifth Euclidean dimension, whose extent resembles the inverse gauge coupling of the resulting four-dimensional theory after dimensional reduction. The incl usion of quarks is natural in Shamir's variant of Kaplan's fermion method, which does not require fine-tuning to approach the chiral limit. A rishon r epresentation in terms of fermionic constituents of the gluons is derived a nd the quantum link Hamiltonian for QCD with a U(N) gauge symmetry is expre ssed in terms of glueball, meson and constituent quark operators. The new f ormulation of QCD is promising both from an analytic and from a computation al point of view. [S0556-2821(99)04609-3].