Hyperon Weak Radiative Decay

TL;DR

This paper analyzes hyperon weak radiative decays using a non-relativistic quark model, explaining experimental data and mechanisms for parity violation and flavor symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It provides a self-consistent quark model framework that accounts for experimental observations and explains parity violation and SU(3) symmetry breaking in hyperon decays.

Findings

Dominance of pole terms in decay operators

Mechanism for evading Hara theorem with orbital excitations

Significant SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking observed

Abstract

We revisit the hyperon weak radiative decays in the framework of the non-relativistic constituent quark model. This study confirms the nonlocal feature of the hyperon weak radiative transition operators which are dominated by the pole terms, and an overall self-consistent description of the available experimental data for the Cabibbo-favored hyperon weak radiative decays is achieved. It provides a natural mechanism for evading the Hara theorem, where sizeable parity-violating contributions can come from the intermediate orbital excitations. Cancellations between pole terms also explain significant SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking manifested by the experimental data. We also discuss several interesting selection rules arising from either the electromagnetic or the weak interaction vertices. These features suggest nontrivial relations among different hyperon decays.