Strangeness and Chiral Symmetry Breaking

The implications of chiral symmetry breaking and SU(3) symmetry breaking have been studied in the chiral constituent quark model ($\chi$CQM). The role of hidden strangeness component has been investigated for the scalar matrix elements of the nucleon with an emphasis on the meson-nucleon sigma terms. The $\chi$CQM is able to give a qualitative and quantitative description of the "quark sea" generation through chiral symmetry breaking. The significant contribution of the strangeness is consistent with the recent available experimental observations.