Pseudospin symmetry in nuclei, spin symmetry in hadrons

Abstract

Ginocchio argued that chiral symmetry breaking in QCD is responsible for the relativistic pseudospin symmetry in the Dirac equation, explaining the observed approximate pseudospin symmetry in sizable nuclei. On a much smaller scale, it is known that spin-orbit splittings in hadrons are small. Specifically, new experimental data from CLEO indicate small splittings in D-mesons. For heavy-light mesons we identify a cousin of pseudospin symmetry that suppresses these splittings in the Dirac equation, known as spin symmetry. We suggest an experimental test of the implications of spin symmetry for wave functions in electron-positron annihilation. We investigate how QCD can give rise to two different dynamical symmetries on nuclear and hadronic scales.