Fermion masses in potential models of chiral symmetry breaking

A class of models of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking is considered, based on the Hamiltonian with an instantaneous potential interaction of fermions. An explicit mass term mΨ-barΨ is included and the physical meaning of the mass parameter is discussed. It is shown that if the Hamiltonian is normal-ordered (i.e. self-energy omitted), then the mass m introduced in the Hamiltonian is not the current mass appearing in the current algebra relations. (author)