U(1)_A Topological Susceptibility and its Slope, Pseudoscalar Gluonium and the Spin of the Proton

We review the determinations of the pseudoscalar glueball and eventual radial excitation of the \eta' masses and decay constants from QCD spectral sum rules (QSSR). The glueball mass is (2.05+-0.19) which one can compare with the eventual experimental candidate X(1835), while the \eta(1400) is likely a radial excitation of the \eta'-meson. Their effects on the estimates of U(1)_A topological susceptibility and its slope as well as the impact of the latter in the estimate of the spin of the proton is discussed. We predict the singlet polarized parton distributions to be a^0(Q^2=4 GeV^2)=0.32+-0.02, which is about a factor two smaller than the OZI value, but comparable with the COMPASS measurement of 0.24+-0.02.Comment: 12 pages latex file. In honour of Professor A. Di Giacomo for his 70th birthday (Adrianofest 26-27th January 2006, Pisa, Italy). To appear in the Proceeding

Scalar mesons in QCD and tests of the gluon content of the sigma

We summarize the different features of the scalar mesons from QCD spectral sum rule analyses of the two- and three-point functions. The results do not favour the u-bar u + d-bar d interpretation of the broad and low mass sigma (0.6), and the u-bar s resonance nature of the eventually observed kappa(0.9) meson. We also discuss some OZI-violating and classic semileptonic and radiative decay processes which can reveal in a model-independent way the eventual gluon component sigma_B of the sigma. In a meson-gluonium mixing scenario, one also expects an observation of the K K-bar final states from the sigma_B which may compete (if phase space allowed) with the one from a low mass s-bar s state assumed in the literature to be the SU(3) partner of the $\sigma (0.6)$ if this latter is a u-bar u + d-bar d stateComment: References added. Mini-review given at the QCD 02 9th International High-Energy Physics Conference in Quantum ChromoDynamics (Montpellier 2-9th July 2002

The SVZ-Expansion and Beyond

I discuss the standard SVZ-expansion of the QCD two-point correlators in terms of the QCD vacuum condensates and beyond it due to a new unflavoured 1/Q^2-term (tachyonic gluon mass squared \lambda^2) which modelizes the effects of uncalculated higher order perturbative terms. The approach is confronted with low-energy and lattice data. One can notice that, in the different examples studied here, high-dimension condensates are expected to deviate largely from their vacuum saturation (large N_c) values, while the new 1/Q^2-term due to \lambda^2 solves the hadronic mass scale hierarchy-puzzle encountered in the early SVZ-sum rule analysis and improves the low-energy phenomenology. From tau-decay data, one can extract the running strange quark mass m_s(2 GeV)=(93^{+29}_{-32}) MeV and a more accurate value of the QCD coupling \alpha_s(M_Z)=0.117+- 0.002.Comment: 7 pages in 2-column format, 1 figure, 4 tables, Talk given at the Workshop Understanding Confinement (Ringberg Castle, 16-21th May 2005) and at QCD 05 International Conference (Montpellier, 4-8th July 2005

Decay Constants of Heavy-Light Mesons from QCD

We summarize recently improved results for the pseudoscalar [1,2] and vector [3] meson decay constants and their ratios from QCD spectral sum rules where N2LO + estimate of the N3LO PT and power corrections up to d< 6 dimensions have been included in the SVZ expansion. The "optimal results" based on stability criteria with respect to the variations of the Laplace/Moments sum rule variables, QCD continuum threshold and subtraction constant \mu are compared with recent sum rules and lattice calculations. To understand the "apparent tension" between some recent results for f_B*/f_B, we present in Section 8 "a novel extraction" of this ratio from heavy quark effective theory (HQET) sum rules by including the normalization factor (M_b/M_B)^2 relating the pseudoscalar to the universal HQET correlators for finite b-quark and B-meson masses. We obtain f_B*/f_B=1.025(16) in good agreement with the one 1.016(16) from (pseudo)scalar sum rules in full QCD [3]. We complete the paper by including new improved estimates of the scalar, axial-vector and B^*_c meson decays constants (Sections 11-13). For further phenomenological uses, we attempt to extract a Global Average of different sum rules and lattice determinations of the decay constants which are summarized in Tables 2-6. We do not found any deviation of these SM results from the present data.Comment: New results on scalar, axial and B*c meson decay constants added in Sections 11-13. 11 pages. 14 new figures, 2 new tables. Contents of the tables and of the text improved. References added and updated. Misprints corrected. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1404.664

Strange quark mass from e+e- revisited and present status of light quark masses

We reconsider the determinations of the strange quark mass m_s from e+e- into hadrons data using a new combination of FESR and revisiting the existing tau-like sum rules by including non-resonant contributions to the spectral functions. To order alpha_s^3 and including the tachyonic gluon mass lambda^2 contribution, which phenomenologically parametrizes the UV renormalon effect into the PT series, we obtain the invariant mass m_s=(119 +- 17)MeV leading to: m_s(2 GeV)=(104+- 15)MeV. Combining this value with the recent and independent phenomenological determinations from some other channels, to order alpha_s^3 and including lambda^2, we deduce the weighted average: m_s (2 GeV)=(96.1 +- 4.8)MeV . The positivity of the spectral functions in the (pseudo)scalar [resp. vector] channels leads to the lower [resp. upper] bounds of m_s(2 GeV): (71 +- 4) MeV < m_s(2 GeV) < (151 +- 14) MeV, to order alpha_s^3. Using the ChPT mass ratio r_3 = 2m_s/(m_u+m_d)=24.2 +- 1.5, and the average value of m_s, we deduce: (m_u+m_d)(2 GeV)=(7.9 +- 0.6) MeV, consistent with the pion sum rule result, which, combined with the ChPT value for m_u/m_d, gives: m_d(2 GeV)=(5.1 +- 0.4)MeV and m_u(2 GeV)=(2.8 +- 0.2)MeV. Finally, using (m_u+m_d) from the pion sum rule and the average value of m_s (without the pion sum rule), the method gives: r_3= 23.5 +- 5.8 in perfect agreement with the ChPT ratio, indicating the self-consistency of the sum rule results. Using the value: m_b(m_b)=(4.23 +- 0.06) GeV, we also obtain the model-building useful scale-independent mass ratio: m_b/m_s=50 +- 3.Comment: Updated and improved average values. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Open Charm and Beauty Chiral Multiplets in QCD

We study the dynamics of the the spin zero open charm and beauty mesons using QCD spectral sum rules (QSSR), where we observe the important r\^ole of the chiral condensate in the mass-splittings between the scalar-pseudoscalar mesons. Fixing the sum rule parameters for reproducing the well-known D(0-) and Ds(0-) masses, we re-obtain the running charm quark mass: mc(mc)=1.13^{+0.08}_{-0.04} GeV, which confirms our recent estimate from this channel [1]. Therefore, using sum rules, with no-free parameters, we deduce M_{Ds(0+)}= (2297+- 113) MeV, which is consistent with the observed Ds(2317) meson, while a small SU(3) breaking of about 25 MeV for the Ds(0+)-D(0+) mass-difference has been obtained. We extend our analysis to the B-system and find M{B(0+)}- M{B(0-)}= (422+- 196) MeV confirming our old result from moment sum rules [2]. Assuming an approximate (heavy and light) flavour and spin symmetries of the mass-splittings as indicated by our results, we also deduce M_{D*s(1+)}= (2440+-113) MeV in agreement with the observed D{sJ}(2457). We also get: f{D(0+)}= (217+- 25) MeV much bigger than fpi=130.6 MeV, while the size of the SU(3) breaking ratio f{Ds(0+)}/f{D(0+)}= 0.93+- 0.02 is opposite to the one of the 0- channel of about 1.14.Comment: Comments adde

Tribute to Francisco (Paco) Yndurain

This part of the talk aims to present briefly the biodata and the exceptional career of Paco Yndurain who left us suddenly in June 2008. The scientific part: Light Scalar Mesons in QCD is published in the proceedings of QCD 08 (Montpellier 7-12th july 2008: arXiv:0811.0563 [hep-ph]).Comment: 7 pages, Invited Plenary Talk given at Confinement8, 1-6 sept., Mainz (DE) (bug corrected