Chiral properties of the constituent quark model

We show that, in a model based exclusively on constituent-quark degrees of freedom interacting via a potential, the full axial current is conserved if the spectrum of \bar QQ states contains a massless pseudoscalar. The current conservation emerges nonperturbatively if the model satisfies certain 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 that set of values of the parameters (such as the masses of the constituent quarks and the couplings in the \bar QQ potential) for which the mass of the lowest pseudoscalar \bar QQ bound state vanishes. At the chiral point the main signatures of the spontaneously broken chiral symmetry are shown to be present, namely: the axial current is conserved, the decay constants of the excited pseudoscalar bound states vanish, and the pion decay constant has a nonzero value.