A possible description of baryon dynamics in dual and gauge theories

Abstract

We present an attempt to generalize to baryons a framework recently proposed in order to unify gauge, dual and Regge-Gribov theories of mesons. We find it necessary to depart from the 1 N colour expansion of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and to replace it by a more general definition of a “dual” approximation of QCD, based on the zero-width limit. Theoretical and phenomenological consequences of the scheme are derived. For N colour = 3, the baryon resembles a Y shaped string; three families of new “baryonium” bound states are predicted and rough estimates of intercepts and slopes of the associated Regge trajectories are given. A new type of Zweig-like selection rule is found to hold in leading order and its violations through higher-order topologies are discussed. Duality diagrams for baryons are ambiguous unless implemented with extra lines indicating the flow of certain colour indices. Duality between scattering and annihilation channels is found in B B scattering and its consequences are discussed. Some justification is given for the quark counting rule for total cross sections. Finally, implications of our scheme for the Regge-Gribov calculus in processes involving baryons are discussed.