The Constituent Quark Model Revisited - Quark Masses, New Predictions for Hadron Masses and KN Pentaquark

Prompted by the recent surprising results in QCD spectroscopy, we extend to heavy flavors the hadron mass relations showing that the constituent quark mass differences and ratios have the same values when obtained from mesons and baryons. We obtain several new successful relations involving heavy quarks and provide some related predictions. We discuss in detail the apparent sharp decrease in m_s and m_c, when a light partner quark in a meson is replaced by a heavy one and construct a potential model which qualitatively reproduces this pattern through wave function effects. We apply these ideas to the recently discovered theta^+ exotic KN resonance and propose its interpretation as a novel kind of a pentaquark with an unusual color structure, J^P=1/2^+, I=0 and an antidecuplet of SU(3)_f. A rough mass estimate of this pentaquark is close to experiment.