Axial-vector mesons in a relativistic point-form approach

The Poincare invariant coupled-channel formalism for two-particle systems interacting via one-particle exchange, which has been developed and applied to vector mesons in Ref. [1] is applied to axial vector mesons. We thereby extend the previous study of a dynamical treatment of the Goldstone-boson exchange by comparison with the commonly used instantaneous approximation to the case of orbital angular momentum l=1. Effects in the mass shifts show more variations than for the vector-meson case. Results for the decay widths are sizable, but comparison with sparse experimental data is inconclusive.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Quasi-exotic open-flavor mesons

Meson states with exotic quantum numbers arise naturally in a covariant bound-state framework in QCD. We investigate the consequences of shifting quark masses such that the states are no longer restricted to certain C-parities, but only by J^P. Then, a priori, one can no longer distinguish exotic or conventional states. In order to identify signatures of the different states to look for experimentally, we provide the behavior of masses, leptonic decay constants, and orbital-angular-momentum decomposition of such mesons, as well as the constellations in which they could be found. Most prominently, we consider the case of charged quasi-exotic excitations of the pion.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, revised version incorporating reviewer comment

Light-meson properties from the Bethe-Salpeter equation

We discuss how to extract observables from an inhomogeneous vertex Bethe-Salpeter equation without resorting to the corresponding homogeneous equation. As an example we present a prediction for the $e^+e^-$ decay width of the $\rho(1450)$ or $\rho'$ meson. We also attempt to identify the momentum range contributing to a vector meson's decay constant.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, talk presented at the conference "Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum IX", Madrid, Spain, 30th of August-3rd of September 2010; submitted to the proceeding

Meson spectroscopy and properties using Dyson-Schwinger equations

We study pseudoscalar and scalar mesons using a practical and symmetry preserving truncation of QCD's Dyson-Schwinger equations. We investigate and compare properties of ground and radially excited meson states. In addition to exact results for radial meson excitations we also present results for meson masses and decay constants from the chiral limit up to the charm-quark mass, e. g., the mass of the chi_{c0} (2P) meson.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, To appear in the proceedings of 9th International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interaction (Meson2006), Krakow, Poland, 9 - 13 June 200