Dilepton decays of baryon resonances

Abstract

Dalitz decay of baryon resonances is studied and expressions for the decay width are derived for resonances with arbitrary spin and parity. Contributions of the various terms in the transition matrix element are compared and relevance of spin-parity and the resonance mass is discussed. Explicite algebraic expressions are cited for spin$\le$5/2 resonances. The results can be used in models of dielectron production in elementary reactions and heavy ion collisions.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure