QCD on a small circle

Abstract

QCD-like theories can be engineered to remain in a confined phase when compactified on an arbitrarily small circle, where their features may be studied quantitatively in a controlled fashion. Previous work has elucidated the generation of a non-perturbative mass gap and the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry in this regime. Here, we study the rich spectrum of hadronic states, including glueball, meson, and baryon resonances. We find an exponentially growing Hagedorn density of states, as well as the emergence of non-perturbative energy scales given by iterated exponentials of the inverse Yang-Mills coupling $g^2$.