D+ -> K- pi+ pi+ : heavy meson decays and final state interactions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the impact of final state interactions on the decay of D+ mesons into K- pi+ pi+ within an effective hadronic framework, extending chiral perturbation theory with unitarization to better understand decay amplitudes.

Contribution

It introduces a unitarized extension of chiral perturbation theory to analyze D+ decay processes without explicit quark degrees of freedom, highlighting the role of dynamical mechanisms in decay amplitudes.

Findings

Qualitative agreement with the modulus of the decay amplitude.

Good phase agreement in the elastic region.

Emphasizes importance of final state interactions in Dalitz plot analysis.

Abstract

We show that final state interactions are important in shaping Dalitz plots for the decay $D^+ \rar K^- \p^+ \p^+$. The theoretical treatment of this reaction requires a blend of several weak and hadronic processes and hence it is necessarily involved. In this talk we present results from a calculation which is still in progress, but has already unveiled the role of important dynamical mechanisms. We do not consider explicit quark degrees of freedom and our study is performed within an effective hadronic framework. In spite of the relatively wide window of energies available in the Dalitz plot for the $D^+$ decay, we depart from $SU(3)\times SU(3)$ chiral perturbation theory and extend its range by means of unitarization. Our present results, which concentrate on the vector weak vertex, describe qualitative features of the modulus of the decay amplitude and agrees well with its phase in the elastic region.