Baryons in Effective Chiral Quark Models with Polarized Dirac Sea

Abstract

We give a comprehensive review of concepts and numerical calculations for SU(2) and SU(3) baryonic systems which are considered as many body systems composed of three quarks coupled to a polarized Dirac sea by a Nambu--Jona-Lasinio like interaction. The general formalism as well as the construction and numerical solution of non-topological mean field solitons are exhibited. Systems with good spin/flavour/isospin/momentum quantum numbers are obtained by using the SU(2)/SU(3)-cranking and the pushing approach. The article contains also recent results for various extensions of the model, e.g. vector and axialvector couplings or the inclusion of scale invariance. Furthermore the relationship of this approach to topological models (Skyrme type) as well as to (valence-)quark-meson models (Gell-Mann--Levi chiral sigma model) is explained. (to be publ. in Rep.Prog.Phys.)