Decay of Polarized Delta

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the decay of polarized Delta resonances to understand their production mechanisms through angular distribution and polarization measurements, providing a method to empirically determine their statistical tensors.

Contribution

It introduces a method to analyze polarized Delta decay using angular distributions and polarization data to empirically determine Fano statistical tensors.

Findings

Angular distributions reveal polarization states of Delta.

Polarization measurements can determine statistical tensors.

Method aids in understanding Delta production mechanisms.

Abstract

The resonance $\Delta(1232)$ with spin-parity ${3 \over 2}^+$, which contributes dominantly to the reactions like $\gamma N \to \pi N$ and $NN \to NN\pi$ at intermediate energies, may be expected to be produced in characteristically different polarized spin states. As such an analysis of the decay of polarized delta is presented, which may be utilized to probe empirically the production mechanism. It is shown that measurements of the angular distributions of the pion and the polarization of the nucleon arising out of ${\vec{\Delta}}$ decay can determine empirically the Fano statistical tensors characterizing the ${\vec{\Delta}}$.