BARYON RESONANCES AND STRONG QCD

Abstract

Light-baryon resonances (with u,d, and s quarks in the SU(3) classification) fall on Regge trajectories. When their squared masses are plotted against the intrinsic orbital angular momenta {\rm L}, $\Delta^*$'s with even and odd parity can be described by the same Regge trajectory. For a given {\rm L}, nucleon resonances with spin {\rm S}=3/2 are approximately degenerate in mass with $\Delta$ resonances. To which total angular momentum {\rm L} and {\rm S} couple has no significant impact on the baryon mass. Nucleons with spin 1/2 are shifted in mass; the shift is - in units of squared masses - proportional to the component in the wave function which is antisymmetric in spin and flavor. Based on these observations, a new baryon mass formula is proposed which reproduces nearly all known baryon masses. It is shown that the masses are compatible with a quark-diquark picture while the richness of the experimentally known states require three particles to participate in the dynamics. This conflict is resolved by proposing that quarks polarize the QCD condensates and are surrounded by a polarization cloud shielding the color. A new interpretation of constituent quarks as colored quark clusters emerges; their interaction is responsible for the mass spectrum. Fast flavor exchange between the colored quark clusters exhausts the dynamical richness of the three-particle dynamics. The colored-quark-cluster model provides a mechanism in which the linear confinement potential can be traced to the increase of the volume in which the condensates are polarized. The quark-spin magnetic moment induces currents in the polarized condensates which absorb the quark-spin angular momentum: the proton spin is not carried by quark spins. The model provides a new picture of hybrids and glueballs.