Non-Perturbative dynamics, pair condensation, confinement and dynamical masses in massless QED2+1

Quantum electrodynamics in three spacetime dimensions, with one massless fermion species in a two-spinor representation, is studied using a non-perturbative variational approach. Quantization of the theory follows Diracʼs Hamiltonian procedure, with a gauge invariant factorization of the physical degrees of freedom. Due to pair condensation in the vacuum state, the symmetry of parity is spontaneously broken. As a consequence, fermionic quasi-particles propagating in the condensate can be identified and are seen to possess a confining dynamical mass, while the propagating physical electromagnetic mode also acquires a non-vanishing dynamical mass. The issues of gauge invariance and confinement of the constituent fermions are carefully discussed