Nonleptonic Decays of Hyperons and Current Algebra

Abstract

Nonleptonic decays of baryons are studied within the framework of current algebra, current-current interaction, and hard pions. A formalism which avoids the usual ambiguity of off-mass-shell extrapolation for the $P$-wave decays is developed, from which formulas for the decay amplitudes can be derived. Two models are discussed. The first model contains the equal-time commutator and the baryon pole terms, but allows for the $\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)\mathrm{}$ symmetry breaking through the presence of the parity-violating spurion matrix elements between baryons. The second model adds the $\frac{3}{2}+$ decuplet and ${Y_0}^{*}\mathrm{}\left(1405\right)\mathrm{}$ contributions to the first model, but the $\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)\mathrm{}$ symmetry-breaking matrix elements are not considered. Reasonable agreement with experiment is obtained in both models.