MESONS AND DIQUARKS IN CHIRAL QCD: GENERATION OF CONSTITUENT QUARK MASSES

Abstract

A new technique for analyzing mesons and diquarks as [Formula: see text] and qq states bound by gluon exchange reveals how quarks acquire constituent masses. Our method, which involves the approximate reformulation of the Bethe-Salpeter equations for chiral QCD in terms of mass functionals, is covariant, has dynamically hidden chiral symmetry and is free of all divergences. From a numerical analysis of these mass functionals, we conclude that the quarks have a preferred or 'constituent' mass, as signalled by a dramatic peaking in the meson and diquark form factors. We obtain values for the bound state and constituent quark masses and also for the ρ → ππ decay width and the ω – ρ mass splitting.