Chiral SU(2) x SU(2) model with infrared quark confinement

An SU(2) x SU(2) chiral quark model describing the properties and interaction of pions and scalar and vector mesons is considered. The confinement of quarks is introduced in the model by means of an infrared cut-off in the one-loop quark diagrams. This cutoff gives rise to the elimination of the unphysical thresholds of the quark-antiquark pair production. The pi-alpha(1) transitions are taken into account. The model conserves all low-energy theorems. The masses of mesons and the widths of the decays rho --> 2 pi and sigma --> 2 pi are calculated. (C) 2000 MAIK Nauka/Interperiodica.