Theoretical evidence for a tachyonic ghost state contribution to the gluon propagator in high energy, forward quark-quark `scattering'

Implications stemming from the inclusion of non-perturbative, confinining effects, as contained in the Stochastic Vacuum Model of Dosch and Simonov, are considered in the context of a, hypothetical, quark-quark `scattering process' in the Regge kinematical region. In a computation wherein the non-perturbative input enters as a correction to established perturbative results, a careful treatment of infrared divergencies is shown to imply the presence of an effective propagator associated with the existence of a linear term in the static potential. An equivalent statement is to say that the modified gluonic propagator receives contribution from a tachyonic ghost state, an occurence which is fully consistent with earlier such suggestions made in the context of low energy QCD phenomenology.