New nonet scalar mesons and glueballs: the mass spectra and the production yields in relativistic heavy ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new classification scheme for scalar mesons as quark-antiquark states, estimates their production yields in heavy ion collisions, and provides evidence supporting $f_{0}(1500)$ as a glueball.

Contribution

It introduces a new nonet scheme for scalar mesons and analyzes their production yields, offering evidence that $f_{0}(1500)$ is a glueball.

Findings

The proposed nonet includes $f_{0}(980)$, $a_{0}(980)$, $K_{0}^{ ext{*}}(1430)$, and $f_{0}(1770)$.

Production yields of these mesons are estimated using statistical and coalescence models.

Results suggest $f_{0}(1500)$ is a glueball based on yield comparisons.

Abstract

We propose a new nonet scheme for scalar mesons consisting of $f_{0}(980)$, $a_{0}(980)$, $K_{0}^{\ast}(1430)$, and $f_{0}(1770)$, regarding them as quark-antiquark $P$-wave states classified by $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ light flavor symmetry. We investigate their production in relativistic heavy ion collisions, and estimate their yields by applying the statistical model and the quark coalescence model. In contrast to these scalar mesons, we regard $f_{0}(1500)$ as a glueball that is not included in the proposed nonet. We quantify the production yields of $f_{0}(1500)$ by accounting for various internal structures of this state, and compare their yields with those of the new nonet scalar mesons. Given the production yields of these hadrons, our results strongly suggests that $f_{0}(1500)$ is a glueball.