Eur. Phys. J. A (2003) 18: 135-140
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2002-10307-2

Scalar mesons and the search for the O ^{+ +} glueball

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, 12000 Jefferson Avenue, VA 23606, Newport News, USA

^* e-mail: uthoma@jlab.org

Abstract

The possibility that gluonic excitations of hadronic matter or of the QCD vacuum may exist is perhaps one of the most fascinating topics in hadron spectroscopy. Glueballs are predicted by many models; in particular, present-day lattice gauge calculations require their existence. All these models agree that the lightest glueball should have scalar quantum numbers and a mass around 1.6GeV, which corresponds to the mass region where the scalar -mesons are expected. Therefore, mixing effects can complicate the search for the glueball. Experiments indeed show an overpopulation of states, for which many different interpretations exist. This reflects the complexity of the situation. New data from various experiments on scalar states give hints toward an interpretation of the scalar states. But still many questions remain.