The role of $q\bar q$ components in the N(1440) resonance

Abstract

The role of 5-quark components in the pion and electromagnetic decays and transition form factors of the N(1440) is explored. The $qqqq\bar q$ components, where the 4-quark subsystem has the flavor-spin symmetries $[4]_{FS}[22]_F[22]_S$ and $[4]_{FS}[31]_F[31]_S$, which are expected to have the lowest energy of all $qqqq\bar q$ configurations, are considered in detail with a nonrelativistic quark model. The matrix elements between the 5-quark components of the N(1440) and the nucleon, $qqqq\bar q\to qqqq\bar q$, play a minor role in these decays, while the transition matrix elements $qqqq\bar q\to qqq$ and $qqq\to qqqq\bar q$ that involve quark antiquark annihilation are very significant. Both for the electromagnetic and strong decay the change from the valence quark model value is dominated by the confinement triggered $q\bar q$ annihilation transitions. In the case of pion decay the calculated decay width is enhanced substantially both by the direct $q\bar q \to \pi$ and also by the confinement triggered $q\bar q\to \pi$ transitions. Agreement with the empirical value for the pion decay width may be reached with a $\sim$ 30% $qqqq\bar q$ component in the N(1440).