Dynamical theory of quark confinement and the hadron spectrum

A dynamical approach to quark confinement and, being on equal footing, the hadron spectrum is presented on field theoretical grounds. The basic ingredient will be the two-body Bethe-Salpeter kernel which governs both the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the quark propagator and the quark-antiquark bound state spectrum. The Bethe-Salpeter kernel is inferred from the β function directly in momentum space. For the β function it is assumed that it has no infra-red stable zero. The quark propagator turns out to be a constant in momentum space (i.e., a delta function in configuration space) consistent with quark confinement and absence of free quark-like states. The bound states are found to lie on linear Regge trajectories. (Auth.)