Nucleon Tensor Charges in the SU(2) Chiral Quark--Soliton Model

We investigate the singlet $g_T^{(0)}$ and isovector $g_T^{(3)}$ tensor charges of the nucleon, which are deeply related to the first moment of the leading twist transversity quark distribution $h_1(x)$, in the SU(2) chiral quark-soliton model. With rotational $O(1/N_c)$ corrections taken into account, we obtain $g_T^{(0)}=0.69$ and $g_T^{(3)}=1.45$ at a low normalization point of several hundreds MeV. Within the same approximation and parameters the model yields $g_A^{(0)}=0.36$, $g_A^{(3)}=1.21$ for axial charges and correct octet--decuplet mass splitting. We show how the chiral quark-soliton model interpolates between the nonrelativistic quark model and the Skyrme model.