The dynamical gluon mass in the massless bound-state formalism

We describe the phenomenon of dynamical gluon mass generation within the massless bound-state formalism, which constitutes the general framework for the systematic implementation of the Schwinger mechanism in non-Abelian gauge theories. The main ingredient of this formalism is the dynamical formation of bound states with vanishing mass, which gives rise to effective vertices containing massless poles; these vertices, in turn, trigger the Schwinger mechanism, and allow for the gauge-invariant generation of an effective gluon mass. In this particular approach, the gluon mass is directly related to quantities that are intrinsic to the bound-state formation itself, such as the "transition amplitude" and the corresponding "bound-state wave-function". Specifically, a set of powerful relations discussed in the text, allows one to determine the dynamical evolution of the gluon mass through a Bethe-Salpeter equation, which controls the dynamics of the relevant wave-function. In addition, it is possible to demonstrate that the massless bound-state formalism is equivalent to the standard approach based on Schwinger-Dyson equations, thus establishing a formal connection between two different nonperturbative formalisms.