Three-quark colour singlet ($|1_c⟩={ϵ}_{abc}|abc⟩/\sqrt{6}$)

The invariant colour state of three fundamental quarks is the normalized completely antisymmetric tensor ${ϵ}_{abc}/\sqrt{6}$. With this colour factor, the Pauli exclusion principle requires the remaining spatial-spin-flavour wavefunction to be symmetric. Colour and approximate flavour symmetry are distinct SU(3) actions.

If three quarks are hypothetically spin-zero bosons, their total state is symmetric under particle exchange. In an $L=0$ symmetric spatial state, the unchanged antisymmetric three-quark colour singlet therefore requires an antisymmetric quark flavour state. With three flavours its space is ${\bigwedge }^3{\mathbb{C}}^3$, of dimension one. The sole flavour state contains one quark of each flavour and has total angular momentum zero.

For an identical-flavour pair in the symmetric spatial ground state of a baryon, the flavour factor is symmetric and the three-quark colour singlet is antisymmetric under their exchange. The Pauli exclusion principle therefore requires a symmetric pair spin factor. Two spin-one-half quarks then form a triplet state, $S_{qq}=1$, rather than a spin singlet. The conclusion applies to the identical pair in both spin-one-half and spin-three-half ground-state baryons.