Two loop calculation of Yang-Mills propagators in the Curci-Ferrari model

Abstract: The Landau-gauge gluon and ghost correlation functions obtained in lattice simulations can be reproduced qualitatively and, to a certain extent, quantitatively if a gluon mass is added to the standard Faddeev-Popov action. This has been tested extensively at one loop, for the two and three point correlation functions of the gluons, ghosts and quarks. In this article, we push the comparison to two loops for the gluon and ghost propagators. The agreement between lattice results and the perturbative calculation considerably improves. This validates the Curci-Ferrari action as a good phenomenological model for describing the correlation functions of Yang-Mills theory in the Landau gauge. It also indicates that the perturbation theory converges fairly well, in the infrared regime.