The structure of the Yang-Mills spectrum for arbitrary simple gauge algebras

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the spectrum of pure Yang-Mills theory across various simple gauge algebras, revealing universal features and algebra-dependent phenomena, and compares predictions with lattice data for consistency.

Contribution

It provides a unified description of the low-lying glueball spectrum for all simple gauge algebras and identifies algebra-specific states and energy behaviors.

Findings

Universal structure of low-lying gluelump and two-quasigluon glueball spectra

Existence of $C=-$ three-quasigluon glueballs only for A$_{r extgreater=2}$ algebras

Gauge-algebra dependence of static energy between sources

Abstract

The mass spectrum of pure Yang-Mills theory in 3+1 dimensions is discussed for an arbitrary simple gauge algebra within a quasigluon picture. The general structure of the low-lying gluelump and two-quasigluon glueball spectrum is shown to be common to all algebras, while the lightest $C=-$ three-quasigluon glueballs only exist when the gauge algebra is A$_{r\geq 2}$, that is in particular $\mathfrak{su}(N\geq3)$. Higher-lying $C=-$ glueballs are shown to exist only for the A$_{r\geq2}$, D$_{{\rm odd}-r\geq 4}$ and E$_6$ gauge algebras. The shape of the static energy between adjoint sources is also discussed assuming the Casimir scaling hypothesis and a funnel form; it appears to be gauge-algebra dependent when at least three sources are considered. As a main result, the present framework's predictions are shown to be consistent with available lattice data in the particular case of an $\mathfrak{su}(N)$ gauge algebra within 't Hooft's large-$N$ limit.