Scalar mesons above and below 1 GeV

Abstract

We show that two nonets and a glueball provide a consistent description of data on scalar mesons below 1.7 GeV. Above 1 GeV the states form a conventional (q bar q) nonet mixed with the glueball of lattice QCD. Below 1 GeV the states also form a nonet, as implied by the attractive forces of QCD, but of more complicated nature. Near the center they are 4 quark states of the Jaffe type in S-wave, with some (q bar q) in P-wave, but further out they rearrange in colour to two colourless (q bar q) pairs and finally as meson-meson states. A simple effective chiral model for such a system with two scalar nonets can be made involving two coupled linear sigma models. One of these could be looked upon as the Higgs sector of nonpertubative QCD.