Relativistic mean field approximation to baryons

Abstract

We stress the importance of the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking for understanding the low-energy structure of baryons. The Mean Field Approximation to baryons is formulated, which solves several outstanding paradoxes of the naive quark models, and which allows to compute parton distributions at low virtuality in a consistent way. We explain why this approach to baryons leads to the prediction of relatively light exotic pentaquark baryons, in contrast to the constituent models which do not take seriously the importance of chiral symmetry breaking. We briefly discuss why, to our mind, it is easier to produce exotic pentaquarks at low than at high energies. © Società Italiana di Fisica / Springer-Verlag 2005.