Natural constraints on the gluon-quark vertex

In principle, the strong-interaction sector of the Standard Model is characterised by a unique renormalisation-group-invariant (RGI) running interaction and a unique form for the dressed--gluon-quark vertex, $\Gamma_\mu$; but, whilst much has been learnt about the former, the latter is still obscure. In order to improve this situation, we use a RGI running-interaction that reconciles both top-down and bottom-up analyses of the gauge sector in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) to compute dressed-quark gap equation solutions with 1,660,000 distinct Ansaetze for $\Gamma_\mu$. Each one of the solutions is then tested for compatibility with three physical criteria and, remarkably, we find that merely 0.55% of the solutions survive the test. Plainly, therefore, even a small selection of observables places extremely tight bounds on the domain of realistic vertex Ansaetze. This analysis and its results should prove useful in constraining insightful contemporary studies of QCD and hadronic phenomena.