An extended Isgur-Paton model: Agreement with the lattice?

Abstract The spectrum for the pure gauge sector is calculated for an extended Isgur-Paton model in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensions and compared to recent lattice calculations of the glueball spectrum. The IP model is extended by inclusion of a rigidity (curvature) term and, in D = 2+1, mixing through a higher topological contribution. For a choice of parameterizations, near quantitative agreement is found for SU(3) in D = 2+1, but in D = 3+1 the extensions fail to remedy the qualitative disagreement.