A study is made of the question of how different the correct transformation $V$ from the current-quark to the constituent-quark basis is expected to be from the free mass-degenerate quark model discussed by Melosh. The effect of SU(3) mass breaking and of mutual interaction of the quarks is discussed in the context of a simple model. The algebraic properties of $V$ are more complicated than that of $V_{\mathrm{free}}$ the transformation constructed by Melosh; nevertheless, it still is tractable enough so an attack may be made on the problem of mass splitting in SU(6) multiplets.

• Received 11 March 1974

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.10.1280