Holographic decays of large-spin mesons

TL;DR

This paper models the decay of large-spin mesons using gauge/string duality, revealing a string-based process that aligns well with phenomenological models and respects flavor conservation and the Zweig rule.

Contribution

It introduces a string-theoretic description of meson decay that naturally incorporates flavor conservation and matches phenomenological decay widths.

Findings

Decay width from string model agrees with Lund model.

Decay process encodes flavor conservation and Zweig rule.

String fluctuations trigger meson splitting.

Abstract

We study the decay process of large-spin mesons in the context of the gauge/string duality, using generic properties of confining backgrounds and systems with flavour branes. In the string picture, meson decay corresponds to the quantum-mechanical process in which a string rotating on the IR "wall" fluctuates, touches a flavour brane and splits into two smaller strings. This process automatically encodes flavour conservation as well as the Zweig rule. We show that the decay width computed in the string picture is in remarkable agreement with the decay width obtained using the phenomenological Lund model.