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Glueballs, constituent gluons, and instantons

Edward Shuryak* and Ismail Zahed†

  • Center for Nuclear Theory, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3800, USA

  • *Contact author: edward.shuryak@stonybrook.edu
  • †Contact author: ismail.zahed@stonybrook.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 054026 – Published 14 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/8rdr-ymbp

Abstract

We present a constituent two-gluon description of the lowest-lying glueball states in pure Yang-Mills theory, calibrated against quenched lattice results. The framework incorporates an instanton-induced dynamical gluon mass, Casimir-scaled adjoint confinement, the short-distance adjoint Coulomb interaction, and instanton-induced central and tensor forces. The scalar 0++ glueball is found to be exceptionally compact, with a radius of order the instanton size, ρ∼13  fm, consistent with lattice indications. By contrast, the tensor 2++ state remains spatially extended due to the centrifugal barrier. We also discuss the role of S–D mixing. A semiclassical analysis further supports Regge behavior for excited states, in agreement with lattice results.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 054026– Published 14 September, 2026
  • Received 11 June 2026
  • Accepted 24 August 2026
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