Comparing Pure Yang-Mills SU(2) and SU(3) Propagators

The infrared behavior of gluon and ghost propagators in Yang-Mills gauge theories is of central importance for the understanding of confinement in QCD. While analytic studies using Schwinger-Dyson equations predict the same infrared exponents for the SU(2) and SU(3) gauge groups, lattice simulations usually assume that the two cases are different, although their qualitative infrared features may be the same. We carry out a comparative study of lattice (Landau) propagators for both gauge groups. Our data were especially produced with equivalent lattice parameters to allow a careful comparison of the two cases.