The lightest hybrid meson supermultiplet in QCD

Understand

We interpret the spectrum of meson states recently obtained in non-perturbative lattice QCD calculations in terms of constituent quark-antiquark bound states and states, called `hybrids', in which the qqbar pair is supplemented by an excitation of the gluonic field.

• We identify a lightest supermultiplet of hybrid mesons with JPC = (0,1,2)-+, 1-- built from a gluonic excitation of chromomagnetic character coupled to qqbar in an S-wave.
• The next lightest hybrids are suggested to be quark orbital excitations with the same gluonic excitation, while the next distinct gluonic excitation is significantly heavier.
• Existing models of gluonic excitations are compared to these findings and possible phenomenological consequences explored.