QUALITONS FROM QCD

Qualitons, topological excitations with the quantum numbers of quarks, may provide an accurate description of what is meant by constituent q uarks in QCD. Their existence hinges crucially on an effective Lagrang ian description of QCD in which a pseudoscalar colour-octet of fields enters as a new variable. We show here how such new fields may be extr acted from the fundamental QCD Lagrangian using the gauge-symmetric co llective field technique.