TOWARDS RESOLUTION OF THE SCALAR MESON NONET ENIGMA - GELL-MANN-OKUBOREVISITED

The new SU(3) nonet mass formula 2M(2)(s (s) over bar) + 3M(2)(n (n) o ver bar, I = 1) = 4M(2)(s (n) over bar) + M-2(n (n) over bar, I = 0) ( n = u, d), obtained in our previous paper by using Regge phenomenology , is rederived for the pseudoscalar and scalar mesons in the Nambu-Jon a-Lasinio model with instanton-induced interaction and applied to the problem of the correct qq assignment for the scalar meson nonet. The r esults strongly favor the masses of the scalar isoscalar mostly octet and mostly singlet states in the vicinity of 1.45 and 1.1 GeV, respect ively. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.