A holographic analysis of the pion

Abstract

Inspired by light-front holography, we compute the pion mass, charge radius, decay constant, electromagnetic form factor and electromagnetic transition form factor. To do so, we model the longitudinal quark dynamics using potentials due to 't Hooft and to Li & Vary. We find a longitudinal wavefunction that is rather more peaked about $x \sim 1/2$ than in previous studies. We also explore the strong degeneracy between these two potentials and conclude by noting that one scenario that accords well with the data also maps onto an equation previously noted by Vegh that describes the dynamics of a four-segmented string in $\mathrm{AdS}_3$.