Radiative Decays of Low-Lying Excited-State Hyperons

Abstract

The quark wave-functions of the lower-lying excited-state hyperons Lambda(1405), Sigma(1385), and Lambda(1520) are not well understood. For example, the Lambda(1405) may not be a regular three-quark state but a {bar K}N molecule. Several competing models have been proposed, but none have been convincingly eliminated. Measuring radiative decays provides a means of discriminating between the models. The radiative branching of ratios are predicted to be small ({approx}1%), but the radiative widths vary by factors of 2-10 from model to model. The existing experimental data is sparse and inconsistent; moreover, the radiative decay of the Sigma(1385) has never been observed before (except for one event). These lower-lying excited state hypersons were produced in a tagged photon-beam experiment in the CLAS detector at TJNAF in the reaction gamma p {yields} K{sup +} Y* for photon energies from threshold to 2.4 GeV. The radiative branching ration for the Sigma{sup 0}(1385) relative to the Sigma{sup 0}(1385) {yields} Lambda pi{sup 0} channel was measured to be 0.021 {+-} 0.008{sub -0.007}{sup +0.004}, corresponding to a partial width of 640 {+-} 270{sub -220}{sup +130} keV.