Meson spectroscopy: too much excitement and too few excitations

We briefly review the general status of meson spectroscopy, especially in light of the often made claim that there are too many observed resonances to be accounted for as $q\bar{q}$ states. Also, the adequacy of the usual Coulomb-plus-linear, alias “funnel”, confining potential for reproducing the experimental spectra of light, heavy-light, and heavy mesons is critically analysed. Thus, many serious discrepancies are observed and discussed. As possible causes, we suggest the neglect of unitarisation and other coupled-channel effects, as well as the deficiency of the funnel potential itself. In order to illustrate our alternative, “unquenched” approach, we present some recent examples of successfully described puzzling mesonic enhancements and resonances, such as the charmonium states X(4260) and X(3872), as well as the axial-vector charmed mesons $D_1(2420)$, $D_1(2430)$, $D_{s1}(2536)$, and $D_{s1}(2460)$.