Mesons and Glueballs: A Quantum Field Approach

The spectrum of two-particle bound states is investigated within a relativistic quantum-field model of interacting quarks and gluons confined analytically. The hadronization process of mesons and glueballs is described by using the Bethe-Salpeter equation. Provided by a minimal set of physical parameters (the quark masses, the coupling constant and the confinement scale), the model satisfactorily describes the meson ground-states, orbital and radial excitations in a wide range from $140 {\rm MeV}$ to $9.5 {\rm GeV}$. The estimated values for the coupling constant and the lowest-state glueball mass are in reasonable agreement with experimental data.