Decays of Baryon Resonances of Any Spin

Abstract

General formulas are derived relating coupling constants for the strong decay interactions of a baryon resonance $B_s^{}{}_{}{}^{*}$ of any spin $s$ to the observed decay widths, for the decay processes $B_s^{}{}_{}{}^{*}\to B_{\frac{1}{2}}+P$, $B_s^{}{}_{}{}^{*}\to B_{\frac{3}{2}}^{}{}_{}{}^{*}+P$, and $B_s^{}{}_{}{}^{*}\to B_{\frac{1}{2}}+V$, where $P$ is a pseudoscalar and $V$ a vector meson. The calculations are carried through within the framework of the Rarita-Schwinger formalism, using interaction Lagrangians incorporating derivative couplings of the pseudoscalar or vector-meson field to free spinor fields. The resulting formulas are compared with the well-known potential-theory expressions.