Eur. Phys. J. A (2008) 38: 317-330
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2008-10675-5

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Constituent gluon interpretation of glueballs and gluelumps

¹ Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, 56126, Pisa, Italy
² Groupe de Physique Nucléaire Théorique, Université de Mons-Hainaut, Académie universitaire Wallonie-Bruxelles, Place du Parc 20, BE-7000, Mons, Belgium

^* e-mail: nicolas.boulanger@sns.it

Received: 28 August 2008
Revised: 20 October 2008
Accepted: 21 October 2008
Published online: 18 November 2008

Abstract

Arguments are given that support the interpretation of the lattice QCD glueball and gluelump spectra in terms of bound states of massless constituent gluons with helicity 1. In this scheme, we show that the mass hierarchy of the currently known gluelumps and glueballs is mainly due to the number of constituent gluons and can be understood within a simple flux tube model. It is also argued that the lattice QCD 0^+- glueball should be seen as a four-gluon bound state. We finally predict the mass of the 0^- state, not yet computed in lattice QCD.