Matching Regge Theory to the OPE

The spectra of masses and decay constants for non-strange meson resonances in the energy range 0--2.5 GeV is analyzed. It is known from meson phenomenology that for given quantum numbers these spectra approximately follow linear trajectories with a universal slope. These facts can be understood in terms of an effective string description for QCD. For light meson states the trajectories deviate noticeably from the linear behavior. We investigate the possible corrections to the linear trajectories by matching two-point correlators of quark currents to the Operator Product Expansion (OPE). We find that the allowed modifications to the linear Regge behavior must decrease rapidly with the principal quantum number. After fitting the lightest states in each channel and certain low-energy constants the whole spectrum for meson masses and residues is obtained in a satisfactory agreement with phenomenology. We briefly speculate on possible implications for the QCD effective string.Comment: 24 pages, Latex, significant changes in discussion of fits, more refs adde