The structure of the 1/Nc expansion for the baryon distribution amplitude in QCD is tested using quark models. Earlier conjectures about this structure based on the evolution equation and on the soft-pion theorem are confirmed by the model analysis. The problem of the calculation of the baryon wave function at large Nc is reduced to the analysis of equations of motion for an effective classical dynamical system.
The 1/Nc expansion is formulated for the baryon wave function in terms of a specially constructed generating functional. The leading order of this 1/Nc expansion is universal for all low-lying baryons [including the O(1/Nc) and O(Nc^0) excited resonances] and for baryon-meson scattering states. A nonlinear evolution equation of Hamilton-Jacobi type is derived for the generating functional describing the baryon distribution amplitude in the large-Nc limit. In the asymptotic regime this nonlinear equation is solved analytically. The anomalous dimensions of the leading-twist baryon operators diagonalizing the evolution are computed analytically up to the next-to-leading order of the 1/Nc expansion.
We study the behavior with the number of colors (Nc) of the two poles associated to the Lambda(1405) resonance obtained dynamically within the chiral unitary approach. The leading order chiral meson-baryon interaction manifests a nontrivial Nc dependence for SU(3) baryons, which gives a finite attractive interaction in some channels in the large Nc limit. As a consequence, the SU(3) singlet (Kbar N) component of the Lambda(1405) survives in the large Nc limit as a bound state, while the other components dissolve into the continuum. The Nc dependence of the decay widths shows different behavior from the general counting rule for a qqq state, indicating the dynamical origin of the two poles for the Lambda(1405) resonance.
We show that the nonperturbative solution of the SU(2) linear sigma model field theory requires color number Nc=3. Also, we show that the three-point and four-point functions bootstrap (or nonperturbatively ``shrink) in the chiral limit to the tree amplitudes. Independently, we show that a chiral phase transition for Nf=2 requires Tc=180 MeV, consistent with the computer lattice value (173 +/- 8 MeV).
The counterterm combination that describes the decay of pseudoscalar mesons into charged lepton pairs at lowest order in chiral perturbation theory is considered within the framework of QCD in the limit of a large number of colours Nc. When further restricted to the lowest meson dominance approximation to large-Nc QCD, our results agree well with the available experimental data.
The masses of the negative parity 70-plet baryons are analyzed in large N_c QCD to order 1/N_c and to first order in SU(3) symmetry breaking. The existing experimental data are well reproduced and twenty new observables are predicted. The leading order SU(6) spin-flavor symmetry breaking is small and, as it occurs in the quark model, the subleading in 1/N_c hyperfine interaction is the dominant source of the breaking. It is found that the Lambda(1405) and Lambda(1520) are well described as three-quark states and spin-orbit partners. New relations between splittings in different SU(3) multiplets are found.