Mesons at large Nc from lattice QCD

TL;DR

This study computes meson masses in SU(N) gauge theories for various N using lattice QCD, extrapolates to the large-N limit, and compares results with theoretical predictions, providing insights into meson behavior at large N.

Contribution

First lattice QCD calculation of pion and rho meson masses across multiple N values, extrapolated to large N, with comparison to AdS/QCD predictions.

Findings

rho meson mass at large N is approximately 1.77 sqrt(sigma)

1/N^2 corrections are small in meson masses

results are consistent with AdS/QCD predictions

Abstract

We calculate the pion and rho meson masses in quenched SU(N) gauge theories for N = 2, 3, 4 and 6. Extrapolating these results to the chiral and large-N limits, we find m_rho = (1.670 +/- 0.024) sqrt(sigma) = (741 +/- 11) MeV for the rho meson mass at a fixed lattice spacing a \approx 0.2093 sqrt(sigma) \approx 0.093 fm where we use the (arbitrary) value (444 MeV)^2 for the string tension. We estimate a continuum limit large-N value, m_rho = 1.77 +/- 0.05 sqrt(sigma). We find 1/N^2 corrections to be small and we compare our results to predictions from AdS/QCD.