Quark self-energy

A model of colored quarks interacting through non-Abelian vector gauge potentials is analyzed. An analogy with the Kondo effect of solid-state physics is exploited to suggest approximations to the coupled integral equations for the quark field two-point function. Conditions are described for which the self-consistently determined quark mass equals infinity. A covariant bound-state equation for color singlet mesons is derived which is essentially three-dimensional. The internal Minkowski space, parametrized by the relative coordinate four-vector x^μ, is replaced by a hyperplane in that space defined by x^μP_μ=0, P^μ being the four-momentum of the meson. Thus, "quark confinement" to the "inside" of the meson induces a contraction of the four-dimensional, internal Minkowski space to that hypersurface orthogonal to P^μ. Some pecularities of the equation are briefly discussed.