Isospin Decomposition of the Photoproduced \Sigma\pi\ System Near the \Lambda(1405)

Abstract

Recent experimental results for the reaction \gamma + p \to K^+ + \Sigma + \pi\ from CLAS at Jefferson Lab are discussed. It was found that the mass distributions or "line shapes" of the three charge combinations \Sigma^+ \pi^-, \Sigma^0 \pi^0 and \Sigma^- \pi^+ differ significantly. Our results show that the \Lambda(1405), as the I=0 constituent of the reaction, must be accompanied by an I > 0 component. We discuss phenomenological fits to the data to test the possible forms and magnitudes of these amplitudes. A two-amplitude I=0 fit of Breit-Wigner form to the \Sigma^0\pi^0 channel alone works quite well. The addition of a single I=1 amplitude works fairly well to model all the line shapes simultaneously.