Semiclassical Decay of Excited String States on Leading Regge Trajectories

Abstract

We study the decay of hadrons based on a semiclassical string model. By including quark mass effects we find that the width to mass ratio $\G/m$ is an increasing function of $m$, which increases most rapidly for massive quarks. This is consistent with the available data. The decay probability of hadrons on the leading Regge trajectories is computed taking the effect of the string rotation into account. The resulting decay probability is no longer uniform along the length of the string but varies in a manner that is in qualitative agreement with the available data. We argue in favour of possible experiments that would test our predictions more accurately and help open a window to the nonperturbative aspects of QCD.