A five-dimensional effective model for excited light mesons.

In the usual holographic approach to QCD, the meson spectrum is generated due to a non-trivial 5-dimensional background. We propose an alternative 5-dimensional scenario in which the spectrum emerges due to the coupling to a scalar field whose condensation is supposed to be dual to the formation of a gluon condensate and mimics the scale anomaly in QCD. The spectrum of model has a finite number of discrete states plus continuum and reveals a Regge-like behavior in the strong coupling regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]