A self-consistent large Nc approach is developed for the collective
quantization of SU(3) flavor hedgehog solitons, such as the Skyrmion. The key
to this analysis is the determination of all of the zero modes associated with
small fluctuations around the hedgehog. These are used in the conventional way
to construct collective coordinates. This approach differs from previous work
in that it does not implicitly assume that each static zero mode is associated
with a dynamical zero mode. It is demonstrated explicitly in the context of the
Skyrmion that there are fewer dynamical zero modes than static ones due to the
Witten-Wess-Zumino term in the action. Group-theoretic methods are employed to
identify the physical states resulting from canonical quantization of the
collectively rotating soliton. The collective states fall into representations
of SU(3) flavor labeled by (p,q) and are given by (2J,2Nc−J)
where J=1/2,3/2,... is the spin of the collective state. States with
strangeness S>0 do not arise as collective states from this procedure; thus
the θ+ (pentaquark) resonance does not arise as a collective
excitation in models of this type.Comment: 12 pages; uses package "youngtab