Constituent quarks, chiral symmetry, and chiral point of the constituent quark model

We construct the full axial current of the constituent quarks by a summation of the infinite number of diagrams describing constituent-quark soft interactions. By requiring that the conservation of this current is violated only by terms of order $O(M_\pi^2)$, where $M_\pi$ is the mass of the lowest pseudoscalar $\bar QQ$ bound state, we derive important constraints on (i) the axial coupling $g_A$ of the constituent quark and (ii) the $\bar QQ$ potential at large distances. We define the chiral point of the constituent quark model as those values of the parameters, such as the masses of the constituent quarks and the couplings in the $\bar QQ$ potential, for which $M_\pi$ vanishes. At the chiral point the main signatures of the spontaneously broken chiral symmetry are shown to be present, namely: the axial current of the constituent quarks is conserved, the leptonic decay constants of the excited pseudoscalar bound states vanish, and the pion decay constant has a nonzero value.