GAUGE-INDEPENDENT CHIRAL-SYMMETRY BREAKING IN QUENCHED QED

In quenched QCD we construct a nonperturbative fermion-boson vertex that ensures the fermion propagator satisfies the Ward-Takahashi identity, is multiplicatively renormalizable, agrees with perturbation theory for weak couplings, and has a critical coupling for dynamical mass generation that is strictly gauge independent. This is in marked contrast to the rainbow approximation in which the critical coupling changes by 50% just between the Landau and Feynman gauges. The use of such a vertex should lead to a more believable study of mass generation. © 1994 The American Physical Society.