Hadronic structure on the light-front I.\ Instanton effects and quark-antiquark effective potentials

Abstract

This is the first of a sequence of papers that address the non-perturbative origin of the central, and spin-dependent forces between quarks. Its main thrust is a focus on meson spectroscopy in the center of mass frame. We suggest a "dense instanton ensemble" model for the QCD vacuum, to explain the interquark forces in mesons, from quarkonia to heavy-light and light-light ones, to the extent it is possible. The sequels will show how to export these interactions to the light front, and derive the corresponding Hamiltonians and mesonic wavefunctions.

v2 has some text editing and notation clarifications