An outline of the original, 2-flavor model The chiral model of Gürsey (1960; also see Gell-Mann and Lévy) is now appreciated to be an effective theory of
QCD with two light quarks,
u, and
d. The QCD Lagrangian is approximately invariant under independent global flavor rotations of the left- and right-handed quark fields, :\begin{cases} q_\mathsf{L} \mapsto q_\mathsf{L}'= L\ q_\mathsf{L} = \exp{\left(- i {\boldsymbol{\theta}}_\mathsf{L} \cdot \tfrac{1}{2}\boldsymbol{\tau} \right)} q_\mathsf{L} \\ q_\mathsf{R} \mapsto q_\mathsf{R}'= R\ q_\mathsf{R} = \exp{\left(- i \boldsymbol{\theta}_\mathsf{R} \cdot \tfrac{1}{2}\boldsymbol{\tau} \right)} q_\mathsf{R} \end{cases} where '
denote the Pauli matrices in the flavor space and 'R are the corresponding rotation angles. The corresponding symmetry group \ \text{SU}(2)_\mathsf{L} \times \text{SU}(2)_\mathsf{R}\ is the chiral group, controlled by the six conserved currents :L_\mu^i = \bar q_\mathsf{L} \gamma_\mu \tfrac{\tau^i}{2} q_\mathsf{L} , \qquad R_\mu^i = \bar q_\mathsf{R} \gamma_\mu \tfrac{\tau^i}{2} q_\mathsf{R}\ , which can equally well be expressed in terms of the vector and axial-vector currents : V_\mu^i = L_\mu^i + R_\mu^i, \qquad A_\mu^i = R_\mu^i - L_\mu^i ~. The corresponding conserved charges generate the algebra of the chiral group, : \left[ Q_{I}^i, Q_{I}^j \right] = i \epsilon^{ijk} Q_{I}^k \qquad \qquad \left[ Q_\mathsf{L}^i, Q_\mathsf{R}^j \right] = 0, with or, equivalently, : \left[ Q_{V}^i, Q_{V}^j \right] = i \epsilon^{ijk} Q_V^k, \qquad \left[ Q_{A}^i, Q_{A}^j \right] = i \epsilon^{ijk} Q_{V}^k, \qquad \left[ Q_{V}^i, Q_{A}^j \right] = i \epsilon^{ijk} Q_A^k. Application of these commutation relations to hadronic reactions dominated
current algebra calculations in the early 1970s. At the level of hadrons, pseudoscalar mesons, the ambit of the chiral model, the chiral \ \text{SU}(2)_\mathsf{L} \times \text{SU}(2)_\mathsf{R}\ group is
spontaneously broken down to \text{SU}(2)_V\ , by the
QCD vacuum. That is, it is realized
nonlinearly, in the
Nambu–Goldstone mode: The annihilate the vacuum, but the
QA do not! This is visualized nicely through a geometrical argument based on the fact that the Lie algebra of \text{SU}(2)_\mathsf{L} \times\text{SU}(2)_\mathsf{R}\ is isomorphic to that of SO(4). The unbroken subgroup, realized in the linear Wigner–Weyl mode, is \ \text{SO}(3) \subset \text{SO}(4)\ which is locally isomorphic to SU(2) (V: isospin). To construct a
non-linear realization of SO(4), the representation describing four-dimensional rotations of a vector : \begin{pmatrix} {\boldsymbol{ \pi}} \\ \sigma \end{pmatrix} \equiv \begin{pmatrix} \pi_1 \\ \pi_2 \\ \pi_3 \\ \sigma \end{pmatrix}, for an infinitesimal rotation parametrized by six angles :\left \{ \theta_i^{V,A} \right \}, \qquad i =1, 2, 3, is given by : \begin{pmatrix} {\boldsymbol{ \pi}} \\ \sigma \end{pmatrix} \stackrel{SO(4)}{\longrightarrow} \begin{pmatrix} {\boldsymbol{ \pi}'} \\ \sigma' \end{pmatrix} = \left[ \mathbf{1}_4+ \sum_{i=1}^3 \theta_i^V\ V_i + \sum_{i=1}^3 \theta_i^A\ A_i \right] \begin{pmatrix} {\boldsymbol{ \pi}} \\ \sigma \end{pmatrix} where : \sum_{i=1}^3 \theta_i^V\ V_i =\begin{pmatrix} 0 & -\theta^V_3 & \theta^V_2 & 0 \\ \theta^V_3 & 0 & -\theta_1^V & 0 \\ -\theta^V_2 & \theta_1^V & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{pmatrix} \qquad \qquad \sum_{i=1}^3 \theta_i^A\ A_i = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & 0 & 0 & \theta^A_1 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & \theta^A_2 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & \theta^A_3 \\ -\theta^A_1 & -\theta_2^A & -\theta_3^A & 0 \end{pmatrix}. The four real quantities define the smallest nontrivial chiral multiplet and represent the field content of the linear sigma model. To switch from the above linear realization of SO(4) to the nonlinear one, we observe that, in fact, only three of the four components of are independent with respect to four-dimensional rotations. These three independent components correspond to coordinates on a hypersphere S3, where and are subjected to the constraint :{\boldsymbol{ \pi}}^2 + \sigma^2 = F^2\ , with a
pion decay constant with
dimension =
mass. Utilizing this to eliminate yields the following transformation properties of '''''' under SO(4), :\begin{cases} \theta^V : \boldsymbol{\pi} \mapsto \boldsymbol{\pi}'= \boldsymbol{\pi} + \boldsymbol{\theta}^V \times \boldsymbol{\pi} \\ \theta^A: \boldsymbol{\pi} \mapsto \boldsymbol{\pi}'= \boldsymbol{ \pi } + \boldsymbol{\theta}^A \sqrt{ F^2 - \boldsymbol{ \pi}^2} \end{cases} \qquad \boldsymbol{\theta}^{V,A} \equiv \left \{ \theta^{V,A}_i \right \}, \qquad i =1, 2, 3. The nonlinear terms (shifting '''''') on the right-hand side of the second equation underlie the nonlinear realization of SO(4). The chiral group \ \text{SU}(2)_\mathsf{L} \times \text{SU}(2)_\mathsf{R} \simeq \text{SO}(4)\ is realized nonlinearly on the triplet of pions – which, however, still transform linearly under isospin \ \text{SU}(2)_V \simeq \text{SO}(3)\ rotations parametrized through the angles \ \left\{ \boldsymbol{\theta}_V \right\} ~. By contrast, the \ \left\{ \boldsymbol{\theta}_A \right\}\ represent the nonlinear "shifts" (spontaneous breaking). Through the
spinor map, these four-dimensional rotations of can also be conveniently written using 2×2 matrix notation by introducing the unitary matrix : U = \frac{1}{F} \left( \sigma \mathbf{1}_2 + i \boldsymbol{ \pi} \cdot \boldsymbol{ \tau} \right)\ , and requiring the transformation properties of under chiral rotations to be : U \longrightarrow U' = L U R^\dagger\ , where ~ \theta_\mathsf{L} = \theta_V - \theta_A\ , \quad \theta_\mathsf{R} = \theta_V+ \theta_A ~. The transition to the nonlinear realization follows, : U = \frac{1}{F} \left( \sqrt{F^2 - \boldsymbol{ \pi}^2\ }\ \mathbf{1}_2 + i \boldsymbol{ \pi} \cdot \boldsymbol{ \tau} \right)\ , \qquad \mathcal{L}_\pi^{(2)} = \tfrac{1}{4}F^2\ \langle\ \partial_\mu U\ \partial^\mu U^\dagger\ \rangle_\mathsf{tr}\ , where \ \langle \ldots \rangle_\mathsf{tr}\ denotes the
trace in the flavor space. This is a
non-linear sigma model. Terms involving \textstyle\ \partial_\mu \partial^\mu\ U\ or \textstyle\ \partial_\mu \partial^\mu\ U^\dagger\ are not independent and can be brought to this form through partial integration. The constant 2 is chosen in such a way that the Lagrangian matches the usual free term for massless scalar fields when written in terms of the pions, :\ \mathcal{L}_\pi^{(2)} = \frac{1}{2} \partial_\mu \boldsymbol{\pi} \cdot \partial^\mu \boldsymbol{\pi} + \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{ \partial_\mu \boldsymbol{\pi} \cdot \boldsymbol{\pi} }{ F } \right)^2 + \mathcal{O} ( \pi^6 ) ~.
Alternate Parametrization An alternative, equivalent (Gürsey, 1960), parameterization : \boldsymbol{\pi}\mapsto \boldsymbol{\pi}~ \frac{\sin (|\pi/F|)}, yields a simpler expression for
U, :U=\mathbf{1} \cos |\pi/F| + i \widehat{\pi}\cdot \boldsymbol{\tau} \sin |\pi/F| =e^{i~\boldsymbol{\tau}\cdot \boldsymbol{\pi}/F}. Note the reparameterized transform under :L U R^\dagger=\exp(i\boldsymbol{\theta}_A\cdot \boldsymbol{\tau}/2 -i\boldsymbol{\theta}_V\cdot \boldsymbol{\tau}/2 ) \exp(i\boldsymbol{\pi}\cdot \boldsymbol{\tau}/F ) \exp(i\boldsymbol{\theta}_A\cdot \boldsymbol{\tau}/2 +i\boldsymbol{\theta}_V\cdot \boldsymbol{\tau}/2 ) so, then, manifestly identically to the above under isorotations, ; and similarly to the above, as :\boldsymbol{\pi} \longrightarrow \boldsymbol{\pi} +\boldsymbol{\theta}_A F+ \cdots =\boldsymbol{\pi} +\boldsymbol{\theta}_A F ( |\pi/F| \cot |\pi/F| ) under the broken symmetries, , the shifts. This simpler expression generalizes readily (Cronin, 1967) to light quarks, so \textstyle \text{SU}(N)_L \times \text{SU}(N)_R/\text{SU}(N)_V. ==Integrability==