A possible description of baryon dynamics in dual and gauge theories

The authors generalize to baryons a framework recently proposed in order to unify gauge, dual and Regge-Gribov theories of mesons. They depart from the 1/N/sub colour/ expansion of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and replace it by a more general definition of a 'dual' approximation of QCD, based on the zero-width limit. Theoretical and phenomenological consequences of the scheme are derived. For N/sub colour/=3, the baryon resembles a Y shaped string; three families of new 'baryonium' bound states are predicted and rough estimates of intercepts and slopes of the associated Regge trajectories are given. A new type of Zweig-like selection rule is found to hold in leading order and its violations through higher-order topologies are discussed. Duality diagrams for baryons are ambiguous unless implemented with extra lines indicating the flow of certain colour indices. Duality between scattering and annihilation channels is found in BB scattering and its consequences are discussed. Some justification is given for the quark counting rule for total cross sections. Implications for the Regge-Gribov calculus in processes involving baryons are discussed. (30 refs).