Axial Transition Form Factors and Pion Decay of Baryon Resonances

Abstract

The pion decay constants of the lowest orbitally excited states of the nucleon and the $\Delta(1232)$ along with the corresponding axial transition form factors are calculated with Poincar\'e covariant constituent-quark models with instant, point and front forms of relativistic kinematics. The model wave functions are chosen such that the calculated electromagnetic and axial form factors of the nucleon represent the empirical values in all three forms of kinematics, when calculated with single-constituent currents. The pion decay widths calculated with the three forms of kinematics are smaller than the empirical values. Front and instant form kinematics provide a similar description, with a slight preference for front form, while the point form values are significantly smaller in the case of the lowest positive parity resonances.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures. Slightly revised, accepted in Phys. Rev.