Strange decays of nonstrange baryons

Abstract
The strong decays of excited nonstrange baryons into the final states ΛK, ΣK, and for the first time into Λ(1405)K, Λ(1520)K, Σ(1385)K, ΛK*, and ΣK*, are examined in a relativized quark pair creation model. The wave functions and parameters of the model are fixed by previous calculations of Nπ and Nππ, etc., decays. Our results show that it should be possible to discover several new negative parity excited baryons and confirm the discovery of several others by analyzing these final states in kaon production experiments. We also establish clear predictions for the relative strengths of certain states to decay to Λ(1405)K and Λ(1520)K, which can be tested to determine if a three-quark model of the Λ(1405)K is valid. Our results compare favorably with the results of partial wave analyses of the limited existing data for the ΛK and ΣK channels. We do not find large ΣK decay amplitudes for a substantial group of predicted and weakly established negative-parity states, in contrast to the only previous work to consider decays of these states into the strange final states ΛK and ΣK.
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