Lattice evidence that scalar glueballs are small
High Energy Physics - Lattice
2025-09-01 v1 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Nuclear Theory
Abstract
This work reports the first calculation of the gravitational form factors (GFFs) of the scalar glueball, performed via lattice field theory in Yang-Mills theory at a single lattice spacing. The glueball GFFs are compared with those of other hadrons as determined in previous lattice calculations, providing strong indications that glueballs have a different gluonic structure than typical hadronic states. A mass radius of 0.263(31) fm is predicted, supporting previous suggestions that the scalar glueball is significantly smaller than other hadrons. These results point towards a potential smoking-gun characteristic to target by experimental glueball searches.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2508.21821,
title = {Lattice evidence that scalar glueballs are small},
author = {Ryan Abbott and Daniel C. Hackett and Dimitra A. Pefkou and Fernando Romero-López and Phiala E. Shanahan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.21821},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
6 pages,3 figures + supplementary material