Dynamical Model of Elementary Particles Based on an Analogy with Superconductivity. I

It is suggested that the nucleon mass arises largely as a self-energy of some primary fermion field through the same mechanism as the appearance of energy gap in the theory of superconductivity. The idea can be put into a mathematical formulation utilizing a generalized Hartree-Fock approximation which regards real nucleons as quasi-particle excitations. We consider a simplified model of nonlinear four-fermion interaction which allows a ₅-gauge group. An interesting consequence of the symmetry is that there arise automatically pseudoscalar zero-mass bound states of nucleon-antinucleon pair which may be regarded as an idealized pion. In addition, massive bound states of nucleon number zero and two are predicted in a simple approximation. The theory contains two parameters which can be explicitly related to observed nucleon mass and the pion-nucleon coupling constant. Some paradoxical aspects of the theory in connection with the ₅ transformation are discussed in detail.