Strong decays of baryons and missing resonances

Abstract

We provide results for the open-flavor strong decays of strange and non-strange baryons into a baryon-vector/pseudoscalar meson pair. The decay amplitudes are computed in the $^3P_0$ pair-creation model, where $s\bar{s}$ pair-creation suppression is included for the first time in the baryon sector, in combination with the U(7) and hypercentral models. The effects of this $s\bar{s}$ suppression mechanism cannot be re-absorbed in a redefinition of the model parameters or in a different choice of the $^3P_0$ model vertex factor. Our results for the decay amplitudes are compared with the existing experimental data and previous $^3P_0$ and elementary meson emission model calculations. In this respect, we show that distinct quark models differ in the number of missing resonances they predict and also in the quantum numbers of states. Therefore, future experimental results will be important in order to disentangle different models of baryon structure. Finally, in the appendices, we provide some details of our calculations, including the derivation of all relevant flavor couplings with strangeness-suppression. This derivation may be helpful to calculate the open-flavor decay amplitudes starting from other models of baryons.