Modeling QCD for Hadron Physics

Abstract: We review the approach to modeling soft hadron physics observables based on the Dyson-Schwinger equations of QCD. The focus is on light quark mesons and in particular the pseudoscalar and vector ground states, their decays and electromagnetic couplings. We detail the wide variety of observables that can be correlated by a ladder-rainbow kernel with one infrared parameter fixed to the chiral quark condensate. A recently proposed novel perspective in which the quark condensate is contained within hadrons and not the vacuum is mentioned. The valence quark parton distributions, in the pion and kaon, as measured in the Drell Yan process, are investigated with the same ladder-rainbow truncation of the Dyson-Schwinger and Bethe-Salpeter equations.