Theory of hadron decay into baryon-antibaryon final state

TL;DR

This paper develops a nonperturbative theoretical framework for baryon-antibaryon production in hadron decays, deriving the amplitude from first principles and applying it to predict features of $ ext{Lambda}_c$ pair electroproduction.

Contribution

It introduces a novel vertex operator incorporating vacuum correlation length, providing a first-principles calculation method for baryon-antibaryon production amplitudes.

Findings

Calculated electroproduction of $ ext{Lambda}_c$ pairs shows an enhancement near 4.61 GeV.

The model's predictions agree with recent experimental data.

The approach links nonperturbative QCD effects to observable hadron production features.

Abstract

The nonperturbative mechanism of baryon-antibaryon production due to double quark pair $(q\bar q)$($q\bar q)$ generation inside a hadron is considered and the amplitude is calculated as matrix element of the vertex operator between initial and final hadron wave functions. The vertex operator is expressed solely in terms of first principle input: current quark masses, string tension $\sigma$ and $\alpha_s$. In contrast to meson-meson production via single pair generation, in baryon case a new entity appears in the vertex: the vacuum correlation length $\lambda $, which was computed before through string tension $\sigma$. As an application electroproduction of $\Lambda_c \bar\Lambda_c$ was calculated and an enhancement near 4.61 GeV was found in agreement with recent experimental data.