Meson spectroscopy in AdS/CFT with flavour

We compute the meson spectrum of an N = 2 super Yang-Mills theory with fundamental matter from its dual string theory on AdS5 x S5 with a D7-brane probe. For scalar and vector mesons with arbitrary R-charge the spectrum is computed in closed form by solving the equations for D7-brane fluctuations; for matter with non-zero mass mq it is discrete, exhibits a mass gap of order mq/(gsN)1/2 and furnishes representations of SO(5) even though the manifest global symmetry of the theory is only SO(4). The spectrum of mesons with large spin J is obtained from semiclassical, rotating open strings attached to the D7-brane. It displays Regge-like behaviour for J << (gsN)1/2, whereas for J >> (gsN)1/2 it corresponds to that of two non-relativistic quarks bound by a Coulomb potential. Meson interactions, baryons and 'giant gauge bosons' are briefly discussed. (author)