Helicity amplitudes and electromagnetic decays of strange baryon resonances

Abstract

We present results for the helicity amplitudes of the lowest-lying hyperon resonances Y*, computed within the framework of the Bonn constituent-quark model, which is based on the Bethe-Salpeter approach. The seven parameters entering the model are fitted against the best known baryon masses. Accordingly, the results for the helicity amplitudes are genuine predictions. Some hyperon resonances are seen to couple more strongly to a virtual photon with finite Q^2 than to a real photon. Other Y*'s, such as the S_{01}(1670) Lambda resonance or the S_{11}(1620) Sigma resonance, have large electromagnetic decay widths and couple very strongly to real photons. The negatively-charged and neutral members of a Sigma* triplet may couple only moderately to the Sigma(1193), while the positively-charged member of the same Sigma* triplet displays a relatively large coupling to the Sigma^+(1193) state. This illustrates the necessity of investigating all isospin channels in order to obtain a complete picture of the hyperon spectrum.