Heavy Baryon Production and Decay

Abstract

The branching ratio B(Lambda_c -> p K- pi+) normalizes the production and decay of charmed and bottom baryons. At present, this crucial branching ratio is extracted dominantly from B.bar -> baryons analyses. This note questions several of the underlying assumptions and predicts sizable B.bar -> D(*) N N'.bar X transitions, which were traditionally neglected. It predicts B(Lambda_c -> p K- pi+) to be significantly larger (0.07 +/- 0.02) than the world average. Some consequences are briefly mentioned. Several techniques to measure B(Lambda_c -> p K- pi+) are outlined with existing or soon available data samples. By equating two recent CLEO results, an appendix obtains B(D0 -> K- pi+)= 0.035 +/- 0.002, which is somewhat smaller than the current world average.