A STRANGE MESONIC TRANSITION FORM FACTOR

Abstract

The strange-quark vector current $\rho$-to-$\pi$ meson transition form factor is computed at one-loop order using strange meson intermediate states. A comparison is made with a $\phi$-meson dominance model estimate. We find that one-loop contributions are comparable in magnitude to those predicted by $\phi$-meson dominance. It is possible that the one-loop contribution can make the matrix element as large as those of the electromagnetic current mediating vector meson radiative decays. However, due to the quadratic dependence of the one-loop results on the hadronic form factor cut-off mass, a large uncertainty in the estimate of the loops is unavoidable. These results indicate that non-nucleonic strange quarks could contribute appreciably in moderate-$|Q^2|$ parity-violating electron-nucleus scattering measurements aimed at probing the strange-quark content of the nucleon.