Bethe-Salpeter equation at leading order in Coulomb gauge

Abstract: The Bethe-Salpeter equation and leptonic decay constants for pseudoscalar and vector quark-antiquark mesons with arbitrary quark masses are studied in Coulomb gauge, under a leading order truncation. As input, we use a pure linear rising potential, supplemented by a contact term arising from the conservation of total color charge. It is shown how the equations can be written in terms of manifestly finite functions, despite the infrared singular interaction. The resulting equations are solved numerically. Both the pattern of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and the leading order heavy quark limit are visible.