Hybridgen: A Model for the Study of QCD Hybrid States

Abstract

We study the mixing of excited states of a hydrogen atom in a cavity with de-excited states plus a confined photon as a model for the coupling of quark–antiquark and quark–antiquark–gluon hybrid states in QCD. For an interesting range of parameters, the results are analytic. We find a case for which wave functions (and hence decay patterns) may be at odds with mass with respect to identification of a state as hybrid or not.