We show from the action integral that in the special environment of a flux tube, ${\mathrm{QCD}}_4$ in ($3+1$) dimensional space-time can be approximately compactified into ${\mathrm{QCD}}_2$ in ($1+1$) dimensional space-time. In such a process, we find out how the coupling constant $g_{2D}$ in ${\mathrm{QCD}}_2$ is related to the coupling constant $g_{4D}$ in ${\mathrm{QCD}}_4$. We show how the quark and the gluon in ${\mathrm{QCD}}_2$ acquire contributions to their masses arising from their confinement within the tube and how all these quantities depend on the excitation of the partons in the transverse degrees of freedom. The compactification facilitates the investigation of some dynamical problems in ${\mathrm{QCD}}_4$ in the simpler dynamics of ${\mathrm{QCD}}_2$ where the variation of the gluon fields leads to a bound state.

• Received 5 July 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.86.125026