Radiative decay of the Lambda(1520)

Abstract

A recently developed non-perturbative chiral approach to dynamically generate the (3/2^-) baryon resonances has been extended to investigate the radiative decays Lambda^*(1520) --> gamma Lambda(1116) and Lambda^*(1520) --> gamma Sigma^0(1193). We show that the Lambda^*(1520) decay into gamma Lambda is an ideal test for the need of extra components of the resonance beyond those provided by the chiral approach since the largest meson-baryon components give no contribution to this decay. The case is different for gamma Sigma decay where the theory agrees with experiment, though the large uncertainties of these data call for more precise measurements.