Meson Decay Rates

Abstract

The new decay rates of mesons which have been published within the last year are examined to determine their consistency with SU(3) symmetry, vector dominance, and the quark model. It is shown that despite an apparent overall trend of the new data to disagree with certain quark-model predictions by a factor of 3 or so, the consistency of the data with usual ideas of low-energy phenomenology is impressive. It would appear that the new data do not constitute a crisis for the "old" physics.