Meson spectrum in SU(N) gauge theories with quarks in higher representations: A check of Casimir scaling hypothesis

Abstract

Gauge theories with gauge group $SU(N)$ and quarks belonging to arbitrary representations of $SU(N)$ form a rich landscape of QCD-like theories, whose study can shed new light on the properties of confinement. Four cases are particularly worth of interest: quarks in the fundamental representation, quarks in the 2-indice (anti)symmetric representation and quarks in the adjoint representation. The last three corresponding QCD-like theories are equivalent at large-$N$ for bosonic observables: It is the orientifold equivalence. The behavior of the lightest vector meson mass versus $N$ has been studied in quenched lattice QCD in the chiral limit in these theories. We show that the observed behaviors are compatible with a string tension proportional to the quadratic Casimir of $SU(N)$ in the quark color representation, $\text{i.e.}$ with the Casimir scaling hypothesis. The large-$N$ limit of some excited meson masses computed in quenched lattice QCD with quarks in the fundamental representation is also shown to be compatible with QCD string's well-known signature: Regge trajectories.