FLAVOR SYMMETRY IN THE LARGE N(C) LIMIT

The difference between two-flavor and three-flavor descriptions of baryons in large N(c) QCD is discussed in detail. For N(c) greater-than-or-equal-to 3 a state with the SU(3) flavor quantum numbers of the proton must contain a number of strange quarks n(s) greater-than-or-equal-to (N(c)-3)/3, whiLe a state with no strange quarks must have extra hypercharge Y - 1 = 1/3 N(c)-1. The extra strangeness or extra hypercharge which vanishes for N(c) = 3 is spurious for the physical proton. This problem does not arise in two-flavor QCD. The flavor-SU(2) skyrmion may give a good approximation for nucleon-pion physics at low energies below strangeness threshold. But any nucleon model with SU(3) flavor symmetry which is interpreted as an approximation to the wave function of the large N(c) limit in QCD can lead to erroneous conclusions about the spin and flavor structure of the proton.