Chiral Solitons

Abstract

Generalizing quantum chromodynamics (QCD) from three to arbitrarily many color degrees of freedom suggests that baryons can be described as solitons in an effective meson theory whose interaction strength decreases with the number of colors. The exact form of that theory is unknown, but at low energies chiral symmetry and its breaking are considered as the construction recipes for modeling the theory. The Skyrmion is a static, localized solution in a non-linear field theory for pions and it is the most prominent version of a soliton in a chirally symmetric meson theory. Upon quantization it reproduces the spectrum of the low-lying baryons and their static properties reasonably well. Extending that theory by vector mesons improves on the agreement between predicted and empirical data. Chiral solitons within models for the quark flavor dynamics facilitate the investigation of nucleon structure functions. Here we provide a pedagogical overview of these facets.

24 pages, invited contribution to the Encyclopedia of Particle Physics, v2: edited for proof corrections

References in corpus (29)

• Heavy Quark Symmetry
• Evidence for Narrow S=+1 Baryon Resonance in Photo-production from Neutron
• Baryons as non-topological chiral solitons
• Nucleon Parton Distributions at Low Normalization Point in the Large N_c Limit
• Baryons as Chiral Solitons in the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio Model
• Dynamics of Baby Skyrmions
• Chiral-Soliton Predictions for Exotic Baryons
• Chiral Symmetry and the Nucleon Spin Structure Functions
• Quantum Corrections to Baryon Properties in Chiral Soliton Models
• Skyrmions up to Baryon Number 108
• $1/N_c$ Rotational Corrections to $g_A$ and Isovector Magnetic Moment of the Nucleon
• Chiral Symmetry and the Nucleon Structure Functions
• Probing the topology of the quantum analog of a classical skyrmion
• Lambda(1405) in the Bound State Soliton Model
• Bound State versus Collective Coordinate Approaches in Chiral Soliton Models and the Width of the ${\Theta }^{+}$ Pentaquark
• The Width of the ${\Theta }^{+}$ Exotic Baryon in the Chiral Soliton Model
• Heavy Quark Solitons: Towards Realistic Masses
• $1/N_C$ Corrections to $g_A$ in the Light of PCAC$
• Nucleon Structure Functions from a Chiral Soliton in the Infinite Momentum Frame
• Heavy Baryons with Strangeness in a Soliton Model
• Axial current matrix elements and pentaquark decay widths in chiral soliton models
• Hyperfine Splitting of Low-Lying Heavy Baryons
• Heavy Meson Radiative Decays and Light Vector Meson Dominance
• Isoscalar NN spin-orbit potential from a Skyrme model with scalar mesons
• On the Skyrme model prediction for the N-N spin-orbit force
• Nucleon Structure Functions from the NJL-Model Chiral Soliton
• Structure Functions of the Nucleon in a Soliton Model
• Extraordinary nature of the nucleon scalar charge and its densities as a signal of nontrivial vacuum structure of QCD
• Quantum energies of solitons with different topological charges