Density of pseudoscalar states : Evidence for valence glue

We claim that experimental meson spectroscopy now requires the existence of constituent gluons. Drawing from several models, we study the number of mesons with given quantum numbers that can be expected in a given mass range, concentrating on pseudoscalars below 2 GeV. Counting only quark-antiquark states gives fewer mesons than are now seen, but including gluon degrees of freedom so that glueballs and hybrid states are allowed remedies this situation