Analytic Bethe-Salpeter description of the lightest pseudoscalar mesons

Within the Bethe-Salpeter formalism for instantaneous interactions, we describe, along a totally analytic route, the lightest pseudoscalar mesons by quark-antiquark bound states which show at least three indispensable general features-namely, the (almost) masslessness required for pions and kaons to be interpretable as (pseudo-)Goldstone bosons, the suitable asymptotic behavior in the limit of large spacelike relative momenta as determined by the relationship between quark mass function and Bethe-Salpeter amplitudes, and a pointwise behavior for finite spacelike relative momenta suited for guaranteeing color confinement.