Strings, monopoles, and meson states

Abstract

Dirac's formulation of the monopole theory modified by an additional mass term for the gauge field has been considered as a possible simplified model for quark binding. We discuss methods for the consistent regularization of the infinities present in the resulting action and equations of motion. In this way we are led to an action which is the same as that suggested by previous authors. We show that the expression for the energy of the modified action still has infinities unless the mass of the gauge field is infinite. Thus the regularization procedure is incomplete when the gauge field has finite mass. Applications of the regularized model to charmonium and other meson states are discussed.