A derivation of Regge trajectories in large-N transverse lattice QCD

Large-N QCD is analysed in light-front coordinates with a transverse lattice at strong coupling. The general formalism can be looked up on as a d+n expansion with a stack of d-dimensional hyperplanes uniformly spaced in n transverse dimensions. It can arise by application of the renormalisation group transformations only in the transverse directions. At leading order in strong coupling, the gauge field dynamics reduces to the constraint that only colour singlet states can jump between the hyperplanes. With d=2, n=2 and large-N, the leading order strong coupling results are simple renormalisations of those for the 't Hooft model. The meson spectrum lies on a set of parallel trajectories labeled by spin. This is the first derivation of the widely anticipated Regge trajectories in a regulated systematic expansion in QCD.