Abstract
The spectrum of glueballs in dimensions is calculated within an extended class of Isgur-Paton flux tube models and compared to lattice calculations of the low-lying glueball mass spectrum. Our modifications of the model include a string curvature term and a new way of dealing with the short-distance cutoff. We find that the generic model is remarkably successful at reproducing the positive charge conjugation, sector of the spectrum. The only large (and robust) discrepancy involves the state, raising the interesting possibility that the lattice spin identification is mistaken and that this state is in fact Additionally, the Isgur-Paton model does not incorporate any mechanism for splitting from (in contrast with the case in dimensions), while the “observed” spectrum does show a substantial splitting. We explore several modifications of the model in an attempt to incorporate this physics in a natural way. At the qualitative level we find that this constrains our choice to the picture in which the splitting is driven by mixing with new states built on closed loops of adjoint flux. However, a detailed numerical comparison suggests that a model incorporating an additional direct mixing between loops of opposite orientation is likely to work better, and that, in any case, a nonzero curvature term will be required. We also point out that a characteristic of any string model of glueballs is that the mass spectrum will consist of multiple towers of states that are scaled up copies of each other. To test this will require a lattice mass spectrum that extends to somewhat larger masses than currently available.
- Received 22 December 2000
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.66.036006
©2002 American Physical Society