Chiral soliton models, large N_c consistency and the Theta^+ exotic baryon

Abstract

Predictions for a light collective $Θ^+$ baryon state (with strangeness +1) based on the collective quantization of chiral soliton models are shown to be inconsistent with large $N_c$ QCD. The lightest strangeness +1 state to emerge from the analysis has an excitation energy which at large $N_c$ scales as $N_c^0$ while collective quantization is legitimate only for excitations which go to zero as $N_c \to \infty$. This inconsistency strongly suggests that predictions for $Θ^+$ properties based on collective quantization of chiral solitons are not valid.

5 pages, 1 figure. This is the version to be published; minor typos have been corrected and a reference added