Connecting nonleptonic and weak radiative hyperon decays

Abstract

Using the recent measurement of the $\Xi ^0 \to \Lambda \gamma $ asymmetry as an input, we reanalyse nonleptonic and weak radiative hyperon decays in a single symmetry-based framework. In this framework the old S:P problem of nonleptonic decays is automatically resolved when the most important features of weak radiative decays are taken into account. Experimental data require that symmetry between the two types of hyperon decays be imposed at the level of currents, not fields. Previously established connections between hyperon decays and nuclear parity violation imply that the conflict, originally suggested by weak radiative decays, has to surface somewhere.