Alternative large Nc baryons and holography

TL;DR

This paper explores an alternative large Nc limit in gauge theories where certain baryons remain light and behave like mesons, contrasting with the traditional view of baryons as heavy solitons, and demonstrates this using holography.

Contribution

It introduces a new large Nc limit where some baryons stay light and behave like mesons, supported by holographic analysis.

Findings

Some baryons remain light at large Nc.

Regge slopes of mesons and alternative baryons are degenerate.

Alternative baryons are equivalent to standard baryons at Nc=3.

Abstract

In gauge theories in the limit of a large number Nc of colors, baryons are usually described as heavy solitonic objects with mass of order Nc. We discuss an alternative large Nc description both directly in the field theory as well as using holography. In this alternative large Nc limit at least some of the baryons behave like mesons, that is they stay light even at large Nc and their interactions vanish in that limit. For Nc=3 these alternative large Nc baryons are equivalent to the standard baryons. In the holographic description it is manifest that the Regge slopes of mesons and alternative baryons are degenerate.