  The baryon axial vector current is computed in heavy baryon chiral
perturbation theory in the large-$N_c$ limit, where $N_c$ is the number of
color charges. One-loop nonanalytic corrections of order $m_q \ln m_q$ are
comprised in the analysis, with contributions of both intermediate octet and
decuplet baryon states, to all orders in the $1/N_c$ expansion of the axial
vector current relevant for $N_c=3$. Theoretical expressions are obtained in
the limit of vanishing decuplet-octet mass difference only, which allows one to
carry out a full comparison with conventional heavy baryon chiral perturbation
theory results for three flavors of light quarks and at the physical value
$N_c=3$. Both approaches perfectly agree to all orders considered. Furthermore,
a numerical analysis via a least-squares fit is performed in order to extract
the values of the free parameters of the theory, using the experimental data
available. The predictions of formalism are remarkable.

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology