A Bethe-Salpeter model for light mesons: spectra and decays

The spectra and electroweak decay properties of light mesons are analyzed within the framework of the instantaneous Bethe-Salpeter equation. The interaction kernel comprises alternative spin-structures for a parameterization of confinement and a residual quark-antiquark interaction based on instanton effects. It is shown that only with a vector confinement the parameters can be chosen such as to yield an excellent description of the light pseudoscalar and vector mesons including weak and two photon decays. However it is found that it is not possible to reconcile this with the Regge behavior of higher lying meson states with the same parameter set.Comment: 12 pages, RevTeX, TK-93-1