{
  "abstract": "Glueballs are colour-singlet bound states built from gluons alone. They are an unavoidable consequence of the non-Abelian structure of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), and, in the pure Yang--Mills limit, they are the only physical excitations of the theory. The present article reviews what is known about them. After establishing which spin, parity and charge-conjugation quantum numbers two- and three-gluon states can carry, the pure-gauge spectrum is surveyed. Each of the main theoretical approaches and their respective conclusions are briefly presented. They include lattice QCD, constituent-gluon and Coulomb-gauge models, functional Dyson--Schwinger and Bethe--Salpeter equations, holographic models, and QCD sum rules. Particular attention is paid to the scale-setting ambiguity that limits how precisely a quenched glueball mass can be converted into physical units. The discussion then turns to full QCD. After discussing the meaning of a glueball assignment in this context, unquenching effects and questions related to glueball--$q\\bar{q}$ mixing are addressed. The large-$N_c$ counting that underpins the mixing picture, as well as mass-matrix and effective-Lagrangian treatments of mixing are presented. The selection rules and dynamical mechanisms that shape glueball decays are also discussed. The gluon-rich production mechanisms used experimentally are finally reviewed. The candidates are assessed sector by sector: $f_0(1370)/f_0(1500)/f_0(1710)$ and the competing interpretations of the scalar sector, $η(1405)/η(1475)$ and $X(2370)$ in the pseudoscalar sector, the crowded tensor region, and the essentially unexplored $C=-1$ sector and its connection to the Odderon. Outlooks on the programmes that could help in validating some of these candidates or identifying others are reviewed as a conclusion.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.16790",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Cyrille Chevalier"
    },
    {
      "name": "Vincent Mathieu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/et3rvavf0dq94.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.16790",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "et3rvavf0dq94",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16790",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ex"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-lat"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ph"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3106|Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213428222",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.16790",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-15",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/et3rvavf0dq94.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:41Z",
      "native_id": "2609.16790",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16790"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-ex",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Glueballs: hadrons without quarks",
  "title_text": "Glueballs: hadrons without quarks",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:21:41Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/et3rvavf0dq94",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}