Analysis of dynamical corrections to baryon magnetic moments

We present and analyze QCD corrections to the baryon magnetic moments in terms of the one-, two-, and three-body operators which appear in the effective field theory developed in our recent papers. The main corrections are extended Thomas-type corrections associated with the confining interactions in the baryon. We investigate the contributions of low-lying angular excitations to the baryon magnetic moments quantitatively and show that they are completely negligible. When the QCD corrections are combined with the nonquark model contributions of the meson loops, we obtain a model which describes the baryon magnetic moments within a mean deviation of 0.04 μ_N. The nontrivial interplay of the two types of corrections to the quark-model magnetic moments is analyzed in detail, and explains why the quark model is so successful. In the course of these calculations, we parametrize the general spin structure of the j=1/2⁺ baryon wave functions in a form which clearly displays the symmetry properties and the internal angular momentum content of the wave functions, and allows us to use spin-trace methods to calculate the many spin matrix elements which appear in the expressions for the baryon magnetic moments. This representation may be useful elsewhere.