Probing the infrared quark mass from highly excited baryons

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the pattern of excited baryon states can be used to measure the running quark mass in the mid-infrared regime, supported by a theoretical model predicting decreasing mass splittings.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to probe the infrared quark mass using baryon spectroscopy and provides the first computation of high-j baryon masses in a chirally invariant model.

Findings

Mass splittings between parity doublets decrease at higher excitation energies.

High-partial wave Delta* resonances can reveal approximate degeneracy.

Theoretical calculations support the proposed mass pattern.

Abstract

We argue that three-quark excited states naturally group into quartets, split into two parity doublets, and that the mass splittings between these parity partners decrease higher up in the baryon spectrum. This decreasing mass difference can be used to probe the running quark mass in the mid-infrared power-law regime. A measurement of masses of high-partial wave Delta* resonances should be sufficient to unambiguously establish the approximate degeneracy. We test this concept with the first computation of excited high-j baryon masses in a chirally invariant quark model.