The constituent quark as a soliton in a linear sigma-model

Abstract

We study a stable, soliton-like solution in the linear $σ$-model where the chiral fields are coupled to a single massless nonstrange quark. We investigate a possibility that this solution represents the constituent quark of Georgi and Manohar. We show that its properties are indeed consistent with nucleon observables. Furthermore, we derive chiral meson exchange potentials between such objects which are similar to recently used potentials in the constituent quark models.