Predictions for the Decays of Radially-Excited Baryons

Abstract

We consider decays of the lowest-lying radially excited baryons. Assuming a single-quark decay approximation, and negligible configuration mixing, we make model-independent predictions for the partial decay widths to final states with a single meson. Masses of unobserved states are predicted using an old mass formula rederived using large-$N_c$ QCD. The momentum dependence of the one-body decay amplitude is determined phenomenologically by fitting to observed decays. Comparison of these predictions to experiment may shed light on whether the Roper resonance can be interpreted as a three-quark state.