Test of SU(3) Symmetry in Hyperon Semileptonic Decays

Abstract

Existing analyzes of baryon semileptonic decays indicate the presence of a small SU(3) symmetry breaking in hyperon semileptonic decays, but to provide evidence for SU(3) symmetry breaking, one would need a relation similar to the Gell-Mann Okubo(GMO) baryon mass formula which is satisfied to a few percents, showing evidence for SU(3) symmetry breaking in the divergence of the vector current matrix element. In this paper, we shall present a similar GMO relation for the hyperon semileptonic decay axial vector form factors. Using these relations and the measured axial vector current to vector current form factor ratios, we show that SU(3) symmetry breaking in hyperon semileptonic decays is of 5-11%.