The Quark Model and The Mass Difference Between The Pion and Rho Mesons

Hussein Al Ghoul
Florida State University

April 16, 2012

Abstract
We intend to study the origin of the mass difference between pseudoscalar mesons and vector mesons
of the same quark combination, specifically the Pion and Rho mesons. The origin of this significant mas
difference is analogous to the hyperfine splitting in the ground state of hydrogen.We will show that the
spin-spin coupling in QCD has the same effect as in QED. The mass of the meson, as we will show within
this paper, is directly proportional to the dot product of the constinuent quarks spins and inversely
proportional to their masses, as suggested by the nonrelativistic quark model. We will then discuss different
models used in explaining the confinement of the quarks, and their effect on determining the hyperfine
splitting. Finally, we will discuss a more advanced paper [4] , with good fitting results using a relativistic
approach.

where ~p is the proton magnetic moment, S~p is the

proton spin, and gp is the proton gyromagnetic ratio
In particle physics, hadrons are composite particles with an experimental value 5.59. Classically the prothat are made of quarks held together bt the strong tons magnetic moment generates a magnetic field of
force. These particles are categorized according to the form,
their quark constituents; The baryons, made of a com20
bination of three quarks, and the mesons, made of a
~ = 0 [3(~p .
B
r)
r ~p ] +
~p (~r)
(2)
3
4r
3
quark and an antiquark. In this paper we will discuss the mass difference between the Pion and Rho where r = ~r/r. The delta function term is an indicamesons, which belong to the pseudoscalar and vec- tion that the field will be infinite at the origin. We
tor mesons groups respectively. The mass difference will not discuss the exact derivation of the formulae
between light hadrons, in general, is related to the used here, and we will instead use them as they can be
light constituent quarks u, d, and s. However, this found in any textbook on quantum mechanics. The
alone doesnt coincide with the observed masses of Hamiltonian in this case is,
hadrons. An interaction between these quarks accounts for this discrepancy as explained by Quantum
~
H = ~e .B
(3)
Chromodynamics (QCD). This theory explains this
interaction in terms of a hyperfine splitting between where ~e is the electron magnetic moment, and it is
the constituent quarks spin states, that is, in analogy given by,
e ~
to the hyperfine structure of the hydrogen atom. In
~e =
Se
(4)
m
e
what follows we will give a brief explanation of the
hyperfine splitting principle as theorized for a hydro- where S~ is the electron spin. The perturbing Hamile
gen atom, we will then show that we can project the tonian becomes,
same principle to explain the mass difference between
0 gp e2 3(S~p .
r )(S~e .
r ) S~p .S~e
0 gp e2 ~ ~ 3
the Pion and the Rho mesons.
H =
+
Sp .Se (~
r ) (5)
I. INTRODUCTION

8mp me

r3

3mp me

In order to find the energy shift, we use the first

order perturbation theory. The energy shift induced
In this section we will briefly discuss the origin of the by the spin-spin coupling is the expectation value of
the Hamiltonian.
hyperfine structure in the hydrogen atom. The proton in the hydrogen nucleus is a fermion (spin 1/2) E = 0 gp e2 h 3(S~p .r)(S~e .r) S~p .S~e i + 0 gp e2 hS~ .S~ i|(0)|2
p
e
8mp me
r3
3mp me
charged particle, and it therefore possesses a magnetic
(6)
moment.
Since the ground-state of hydrogen is spherically
gp e ~
~p =
Sp
(1) symmetric, the first term vanishes due to symmetry.
2mp
II. THE HYDROGEN ATOM

The enrgy shift becomes,

A. Current Quarks

0 gp e2
hS~p .S~e i
3mp me a30

As stated above, quarks can not be observed as free

particles due to their confinement. It is impossible,
therefore, to isolate quarks as free particles and mea~ = S~e + S~p
Let S
sure their masses. However at high energy and momentum transfer, quarks deep inside the hadron bethen the dot product (S~p .S~e ) becomes,
have as if they are free of any interaction [3] . Deep
inelastic scattering experiments provide the necesary
1
S~p .S~e = (S 2 Se2 Sp2 )
(8) tools to establish such a theory. At these high ener2
gies, quantum field theory level, hadrons appear as
Using the fact that protons and electrons are
a complicated mixture of current quarks and antifermions, spin half particles, the total spin of the
quarks as well as gluons. In this limit of energy we
ground state is either 0 or 1. Three states have a spin
can describe quarks as elementary particles. One can,
1 and are thus called triplet states, and one state has
therefore, build currents of these quarks using the cura spin 0 and is thus called a singlet state.
rent algebra (ref [4] gives a breif decription of current algebra). In quantum field theory, these current
III. QUARKS
bare quarks describe excitations of the quark field
(for a better understanding see ref [5]). These quarks
Quarks, along with leptons, are the building blocks have masses of few M eV /c2 (m 7M eV /c2 , m
u
d
which form matter. In the present standard model, 7M eV /c2 ) as theorized by quantum chromodynamics
these quarks come in six f lavors: up, down, (QCD)*.
strange, charm, bottom, and top. The up and down
quarks are the lightest among the group with a
mass of few MeV and are catogarized as the first B. Constituent Quarks
generation particles, whereas the top and the bottom Conceptually, constituent quarks are different from
quarks are to the heaviest with masses of 180 GeV current quarks. As stated before, current quarks is
and 4.6 GeV respectively. This pair of quarks form the notion used in quantum field theory, whereas conthe third generation. In order to have a better idea stituent quarks is a nonrelativistic notion frequently
of the properties of quarks we state some of them in used in specific quark models. These quarks, somethe table below.
times referred to as dressed quarks, share the same
E =

Name
Up (u)
Down(d)
Charm (c)
Strange (s)
Top (t)
Bottom (b)
Table.1

M ass(M eV /c2 )
1.7 to 3.3
4.1 to 5.8
1,270 70
101 20
172,000 1000
4,190 +180
60

Quarks

properties

as

J
1/2
1/2
1/2
1/2
1/2
1/2

B
+1/3
+1/3
+1/3
+1/3
+1/3
+1/3

suggested

by

(7)

Q
+2/3
-1/3
+2/3
-1/3
+2/3
-1/3
the

quantum numbers with the current quarks, they however have significantly different masses. A better understanding of the role of these quarks is directly
obtained from the Constituent Quark Model! . In
this model, valence quarks that are originally current quarks surrounded by a field of interacting gluons
and sea quark-antiquark pairs, are the main souce of
mass of the hadron. This model, originally suggested
by Gell-mann and Zweig, successfully predictes the
masses of light hadrons with an insignificant error as
we will show later in this paper. Other properties of
Hadrons like spin, charge, isospin, and angular momentum are also extracted from all the corresponding
quantum numbers of the valence quarks The up and
down constituent quarks, for example, have masses
300M eV /c2 . These masses are obtained by fitting
the masses of different mesons to coincide with the
proposed model.

I3
+1/2
-1/2
0
0
0
0
standard

model.

Here J is the total angular momentum, B is the

baryon number, Q is the charge, and I3 is the
z-component of the isospin. We should also mention
that quarks from the the second and the third generations have quantum numbers that directly represent
their flavor. The Charm has a charmness c = +1 ,
the Strange has a strangeness s = 1, the Top has a
topness t = +1, and the Bottom has a bottomness
B 0 = 1. The masses of the quarks stated here are
those of the current quarks, which refer to the mass
of the quark in absence of any interaction. In this C. ! The Quark Model
study however, we are interested in the mass of the
constituent quarks. In what Follows we show the Before Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the thedifference between constituent and current quarks.
ory of strong interactions, there was the Quark Model.
Originally proposed by Gell-mann and Zweig to ex*Quantum Chromodynamics, familiarly known as QCD, is the theory of

strong interactions. It has been playing a major role in describing the nature
of interactions between the nucleons and in high energy experiments.. See ref [6]

plain the multiplet patterns of numerous hadronic

structure in the early 1960s. In this model hadrons,
Baryons and Mesons, are made up of quakrs. As
stated before, mesons are bound states of a quark
antiquark system while baryons are bound states of
three quarks. In terms of quantum numbers, angular
momentum (J) and parity (P), the S-wave q q bound
states are called pseudosalars (J P = 0 ) and vectors
(J P = 1 ). These states corerspond to the lightest
meson states that form the pseudoscalar multiplets
and the vector multiplets. Although QCD is the currently accepted theory to explain the interactions on
the elementary level, however it is hard to use QCD
directly to define hadronic porperties. We can easily
see this difficulty within the coupling constant defined
by QCD.

s =

1
gs2 (Q2 )

2
4
)
0 ln( |Q|
2

(9)

Fig(1). The variantion of the coupling constant (s ) as a function

of the momentum transfer as determined by different experiments.

QCD

(More discusson is available in Ref[8])

where 0 is defined as,

IV. THE MASS FORMULA

0 =

1
Nc
2
11
nf
2
3
3

The mass formula predicted by the quark model implies that the masses of the mesons and baryons are
given by the sum of the constituent masses of the
quarks and an extra hyperfine splitting term. As mentioned before, the hyperfine splitting term is directly
proportional to the dot product of the spins of the
quarks and inversely proportional to the product of
their masses. We can however briefly discuss the origin of this equation. In the non-relativistic limit, the
Schrodinger Equation that discribes this system of
fermions is
 X

N
N
h2 2 X

+
Vij = E
(11)
2mi i i,j>i
i=1


(10)

The parameters, Nc and nf , are the number of colors

and number of flavors within SU(3) gauge theory respectively.
The parameter QCD is the charasteristic QCD scale,
which indicates that under its value, perturbation
breaks down. Q is the momentum transfer. Clearly,
the coupling consant is not really a constant but
logarithmically depends on the momentum transfer or
the energy, and equivalently on the distance between
two quarks. In other words, the coupling constant
tends to very small walues when the energy increases
(distance decreases) and the quarks behave like free
particles when they get closer to each other. this feature is called Asymptotic Freedom*[7] . Conversely,
the coupling constant gets large values when the
energy decreases (distance increases). This feature
is called Confinement. Due to the latter, any perturbative approximation in QCD is impossible at low
energies and models are used instead. At these low
energies quarks can be treated non-relativistically to
describe the underlying properties of hadrons within
the so-called Nonrelativistic Quark Model. In the
next section we introduce the meson mass formula as
described by this model.

Where N = 2 for mesons and Vij = Vqq is the potential of the corresponding system. The potential is
a combination of a confinement potential, that will
be discussed briefly later on in this paper, and a perturbed hyperfine potential.
Vqq = Vcon + Vhyp

(12)

where[1]
Vhyp = v0

N
X

~i .~j
h(rij )i
~i .~j
mi mj
i>j

(13)

where ~i are the SU(3) generators, mi and i are

the mass and the spin of the i-th quark respectively,
3

rij is the distance between the i-th and j-th quarks procedure. We start off by defining the flavor waveand v0 is related to the coupling constant[1] . We can function. As mentioned before, quarks are fermions
furtherly simplify the form of this potential using,
that satisfy the Pauli exclusion principle and are defined by the isospin. An up quark (u) has an isospin
8s
(14) 1/2, and a down quark (d) has an isospin -1/2. The
v0 ~q .~q =
9
have isospins
corresponding anti-particles, u
and d,
and relating the spin operator to the sigma matrices -1/2 and 1/2 respectively (Table.1). Considering this
quantum number, a system of two particles with opmentioned above,

~
posite isospins can have a total isospin I = 0 referred
i
S~i =
(15)
to an isosinglet state with one projection (Iz = 0) and
2
I = 1 known as the isotriplet states with three proThe hyperfine splitting potential becomes,
jections (Iz = 1, 0, 1). Putting all these information
together, we can now define the flavor wavefunction
S~q .S~q
Vhyp = A
(16) of a meson (q q state), and specifically the Pion/Rho
mq mq
meson as,
where

2s
| 1, 1i =| ddi

A=
h(rqq)i
(17)

ui | ddi
| 1, 0i = 12 | u
As we mentioned earlier, the hyperfine splitting poftriplet
lavor =

tential is a perturbation to the original Hamiltonian

that includes a kinetic term and the confinement po| 1, 1i =| udi

tential, hence the wavefunction of the original system
is not altered by the perturbed term and it is fully
n

dependent on our choice of Vcon . The wavefunction

ui+ | ddi
| 0, 0i = 12 | u
fsinglet
lavor =
for this system is
The isotriplets mentioned above correspond to
= color spin f lavour space
(18) ( ), 0 (0 ) and + (+ ) bound states respectively.
The space part of the wave function can not be The spin wavefunction for this system is analodetermined directly, but is instead implied by the gous to that of a regular two spin-1/2 particles
model used. We can, however, identify the spin and system.
color parts of the wavefunction.

| 1, 1i =|i

A brief introduction to color: As defined

triplet
by QCD, color is the strong force that governs
| 1, 0i = 12 |i+ |i
spin
=

the interaction between quarks and gluons inside a

hadron as well as the interaction between nucleons.

| 1, 1i =|i
The term color is unrelated to the visual perception
of color. It is thus a quantum number that was
n


singlet
introduced to the notion of quarks in order to statisfy
spin
= | 0, 0i = 12 |i |i
Pauli exclusion principle of fermions. One can think
of color as an analog to the charge in electromagnetic Since the Pion has a spin S = 0 then the correspondinteractions. The quantum states of color are red, ing spin wavefunction is a singlet, however that of the
blue and green along with their anti-red anti-blue Rho is one of the triplets (S = 1).
and anti-green companions. Hadrons are colorless
particles whose color wavefunction should be a A. The Confining Potential
combination of color/anti-color quantum states.
In what follows we will show two model potentials,
among many other models, that might be applied to
The color wavefunction of mesons becomes[8] ,
explain the confinement of the quarks.
1
color = (r
r + bb + g
g)
(19)
i. The Harmonic Oscillator* The potential in
3
this model has the following form[1] ,
where r, b, and g represent the red, blue and green
X Vho
quantum states respectively.
Vqq =
(~i .~j )(~
ri r~j )2
(20)
2
The spin and flavor wavefunctions follow the same
i<j
4

where Vho is the coupling constant.

The ground-state wave function corresponding to this
potential,
1
r 3
0 (~r) = ( ) 2 exp( r2 r2 )
2

Mass Hadron
Experiment
Equation (25)

(21)

and equation(25).

The agreement between our calculated mass

and that determined by experiment is significant.
To a certain accuracy, the mass formula derived
from a simple non-relativisitic quark model is a
convenient approximation for light mesons mass.
We showed that in this model, the mass difference
between pseudoscalar mesons and vector mesons is a
direct outcome of the hyperfine splitting within the
quark-antiquark system.

mq mq
mq +mq

r2 =

Vho ~ ~
mr (q .q)

r =

p mr r

Rho +
775.4 M eV /c2
774.205 M eV /c2

Table.2 Pion and Rho masses as determined by experiment

Where the parameters mr and r are the reduced

mass of the q q system and the coupling constant
respectively. They are defined as[1] ,
mr =

Pion +
139.57 M eV /c2
141.385 M eV /c2

following these definitions, the delta factor in

the hyperfine potential becomes,
r
h0 | (rud) | 0 i = |0 (0)|2 = ( )3

(22) V. A RELATIVISITC APPROACH[2]

i. The Linear Potential! The 2-body linear poten- In this section we discuss a different approach, a reltial is defined as[1] ,
ativistic approach, in explaining the mass difference
bettween the Pion and Rho mesons. Using the Twor
[2]
Vlinear (r) = 2
(23) Body Dirac Equation , and implementing relativisa
tic interaction terms into the Hamiltonian of the modified relativistic Schrodinger equation, the energy of
The corresponding wavefunction is,
the quark-antiquark bound states can be determined.
The four component Schrodinger equation (Ref[2],
2
1
2r 2a En
n = Ai [
]
(24)
eq.2) can be further simplified to include only the rar
(2a)2/3
dial part, and the pion spin-singlet differential equation becomes,
where Ai is the Airy function.
Other confining potential candidates include the Cor
nel potential ( a combination of Coulomb and linear 
d2
2
2
potentials), and the logarithmic potential. (More in 2 +2m S +S +2 AA +D 3SS v0 = b2 v0
dr
formation about these two potentials can be found in
(26)
Ref[1]).
A
similar
analysis
is
done
for
the
rho
vector
meson
Now using s (u, d) = 0.6 and |(0)|2 /mq mq = 33, we
which is a spin-triplet state. A superposition between
get the final form of the mass formula
the S-wave and D-wave is observed, and the two states
couple together in equations (4) and (5) (Ref[2]). AlS~q .S~q
M (meson) = mq + mq + A
(25) though the Cornel potential is widely used to describe
mq mq
the confinement of the quarks inside the meson, hoever it doesnt reflect the asymptotic freedom of a
2mq 2
2
with A = ( h ) (159M eV /c ) is the constant defined
quark-antiquark system. A different potential, inibefore.
tially suggested by Richardson for heavy quarkonia,
We can now test this formula with a direct applica[2]
system, the spin dot product is used
tion. Consider the (u, d)
is of the following form,
82 r
16

V
(r)
=

(27)
+1
f
or
S=1
27
27rln(Ke2 + B/(r)2 )
S~u .S~d =
3 f or S=0
here mu = md = 306 M eV /c2 .
presented in Table.2.
*See Ref[9] for more information about this potential

The results are

The parameters , K and B are determined by fitting

the invariant masses of 32 mesons.
5

! See Ref[10] for more information about this potential

Fig(2). The wavefunctions of the pion meson (solid black), and

the rho meson (S-wave dotted red and D-wave dotted blue)[2].

Using the wavefuctions plotted above, and taking into account all the interactions, the eigenvalues,
b2 , are obtained and the masses of the pion and
the rho are 0.159 GeV and 0.792 GeV respectively.
Table 2 in Ref [2] includes the contribution of all
the interaction terms initially implemented in the
Hamiltonian. An important observation lies behind
the significant contribution of the spin-spin interaction term. The mass difference between the
pion and the rho is again due to the spin-spin
interaction between the quarks.

References
[1] Boaz Keren-Zur, Testing conning potentials
through meson/baryon hyperne splittings.
[2] Jin-Hee Yoon, On the Mass Dierence between
and using a Relativistic Two-Body Model.
[3] Donald H. Perkins, Particle Astrophysics.
[4] S. Weinberg, Phys. Rev. Lett. 18, 188191 (1967).
[5] W. Weise, Quarks and Nuclei.
[6] Frank Wilczek, QCD Made Simple.
[7] Frank Wilczek, Nobel Lecture: Asymptotic
freedom: From paradox to paradigm.
[8] Santanu Pal, Nuclear Physics at Intermediate
Energies.
[9] E Cuervo-Reyes, Hadron Spectra from a NonRelativistic Model with Conning Harmonic Potential.
[10] P. Leal Ferreira, J. A. Helayel and N. Zagury, A
Linear-Potential Model for Quark Confinement.