Relations between inclusive decay rates of heavy baryons

TL;DR

This paper examines how the inclusive decay rates of heavy baryons depend on the flavors of their light quarks, revealing relationships between various decay rate differences and hyperon lifetimes, based on theoretical approximations.

Contribution

It establishes relations between decay rate differences and hyperon lifetimes that are independent of hadronic matrix element uncertainties, using flavor symmetry and heavy quark expansion.

Findings

Decay rate differences relate to hyperon lifetimes.

Relations hold for charmed and b hyperons.

Results are based on flavor SU(3) symmetry and heavy quark expansion.

Abstract

The dependence of inclusive weak decay rates of heavy hadrons on the flavors of spectator light quarks is revisited with application to decays of charmed and b hyperons. It is pointed out that the differences in the semileptonic decay rates, the differences in the Cabibbo suppressed decay rates of the charmed hyperons, and the splitting of the total decay rates of the b hyperons are all related to the differences in the lifetimes of the charmed hyperons independently of poor knowledge of hadronic matrix elements. The approximations used in these relations are the applicability of the expansion in the inverse of the charmed quark mass and the flavor SU(3) symmetry.