QCD vacuum as a disordered medium:: A simplified model for the QCD Dirac operator -: art. no. 132002

We model the QCD Dirac operator as a power-law random banded matrix (RBM) with the appropriate chiral symmetry. Our motivation is the form of the Dirac operator in a basis of instantonic zero modes with a corresponding gauge background of instantons. We compare the spectral correlations of this model to those of an instanton liquid model (ILM) and find agreement well beyond the Thouless energy. In the bulk of the spectrum the dimensionless Thouless energy of the RBM scales with the square root of system size in agreement with the ILM and chiral perturbation theory. Near the origin the scaling in the RBM remains the same as in the bulk which agrees with chiral perturbation theory but not with the ILM. Finally we discuss how this RBM should be modified in order to describe the spectral correlations of the QCD Dirac operator at the finite temperature chiral restoration transition.