A covariant study of tensor mesons

TL;DR

This paper studies tensor mesons as quark-antiquark bound states using a covariant Bethe-Salpeter approach, providing mass predictions and a general framework for constructing covariant amplitudes for mesons of any spin.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive covariant Bethe-Salpeter framework for tensor mesons, including mass calculations and a general construction principle for covariant amplitudes.

Findings

Mass results for J^{PC}=2^{++} mesons from chiral limit to bottomonium

Identification of eight covariant structures for mesons with J>0

Discussion of the roles of covariant structures in meson descriptions

Abstract

We investigate tensor mesons as quark-antiquark bound states in a fully covariant Bethe-Salpeter equation. As a first concrete step we report results for masses of J^{PC}=2^{++} mesons from the chiral limit up to bottomonium and sketch a comparison to experimental data. All covariant structures of the fermion-antifermion system are taken into account and their roles and importance discussed in two different bases. We also present the general construction principle for covariant Bethe-Salpeter amplitudes of mesons with any spin and find eight covariant structures for any J>0.