Method of vacuum correlation functions: Results and prospects

Basic results obtained within the QCD method of vacuum correlation functions over the past 20 years in the context of investigations into strong-interaction physics at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP, Moscow) are formulated Emphasis is placed primarily on the prospects of the general theory developed within QCD by employing both nonperturbative and perturbative methods. On the basis of ab initio arguments, it is shown that the lowest two field correlation functions play a dominant role in QCD dynamics. A quantitative theory of confinement and deconfinement, as well as of the spectra of light and heavy quarkonia, glueballs, and hybrids, is given in terms of these two correlation functions. Perturbation theory in a nonperturbative vacuum (background perturbation theory) plays a significant role, not possessing drawbacks of conventional perturbation theory and leading to the infrared freezing of the coupling constant {alpha}{sub s}.