Electric dipole moment of the neutron in the chiral quark soliton model

Within the chiral quark soliton or Nambu{endash}Jona-Lasinio model with a Witten-Veneziano type of U{sub A}(1) symmetry breaking as well as with a finite {theta} vacuum angle, we calculate the leading term (N{sub c}{sup 0}m{sub {pi}}{sup 2}) in a systematic 1/N{sub c} expansion of the electric dipole moment of the neutron. The consistency requirement that the effects of {theta} should vanish, if either the anomaly or any quark mass vanishes, is satisfied. The resulting upper limit for {theta} is {theta}{lt}2.8{times}10{sup {minus}9}, which lies close to the upper bound obtained in the literature from other chiral models. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}