Vector-Meson Couplings to the Baryons

Abstract

We present some arguments by which the couplings of the vector mesons to the baryons are fixed. These arguments amount to an extension of the nonet scheme which has already been successfully applied by Okubo and by Glashow and Socolow to the $1^{-}$ and $2^{+}$ mass formulas and decays. We find that, using the vector-meson couplings obtained and the physical vector masses, we can largely account for the following experimental observations: (1) the proportionality of the electric and magnetic nucleon form factors to each other and to the $p-{\left({N_{33}}^{*}\right)}^{+}$ magnetic-dipole transition form factor; (2) the suppression of backward $\phi$ production in $K^{-}-p$ experiments; (3) the over-all suppression of $\phi$ production in $\pi -p$ experiments; and (4) the isospin independence of the hard core in nucleon-nucleon scattering. We also estimate the relative leptonic decay rates of the $\rho$, $\omega$, and $\phi$ and predict that there will be suppressions in $f^{\prime }\mathrm{}\left(1500\right)\mathrm{}$ production corresponding to those observed in $\phi$ production.