TOTAL WIDTHS OF HADRONS FROM AN INTRINSIC (QUARK LEVEL) STANDPOINT

The total width of a q $$($) over bar q hadron is modelled by the rate at which it dissociates into two quasi-free quarks of momentum-depend ent mass (m(f)) determined by 4-momentum conservation. A crucial ingre dient in this regard is the quark's mass function for which a non-pert urbative formula is obtained via dynamical breaking (a la NJL) of the chiral symmetry of an input vector-exchange-like 4-fermion Lagrangian, under the knowledge that for a chirally invariant Lagrangian this qua ntity is also equal to the pion-quark vertex function in the chiral li mit (M(pi) --> 0). The latter in turn is based on a Bethe-Salpeter (BS ) model with a vector-exchange-like kernel (chirally invariant) which is precalibrated to the spectroscopy of q $$($) over bar q and qqq had rons, and also predicts a value of [q $$($) over bar q](0) fully consi stent with QCD sum rules. The predicted widths show a good overlap wit h available data up to J = 5, except for local (hadronic) selection ru les which affect at most some L less than or equal to 1 states.