The dilated chiral quark model

Abstract It is argued that constituent quarks live in an effective theory that possesses an approximate conformal invariance. An effective lagrangian is constructed which in the large- N c approximation incorporates Regge asymptotic constraints. The resulting picture explains why linear-sigma models provide successful constituent quark descriptions, both at zero and finite temperature. Our analysis suggests an interesting relation between non-linearly realized conformal invariance and the completion of chiral multiplets in the broken symmetry phase.