We evaluate masses and semileptonic decay widths for the ground state of
doubly heavy Ξ and Ω baryons in the framework of a nonrelativistic
quark model. We solve the three-body problem by means of a variational ansatz
made possible by heavy-quark spin symmetry constraints. Our masses are
comparable to the ones obtained in relativistic calculations and we get one of
the best agreements with lattice data. Our simple wave functions are used to
evaluate semileptonic decays of doubly heavy Ξ,Ξ′(J=1/2) and Ω,Ω′(J=1/2) baryons. Our results for the decay widths are in reasonable
agreement with calculations done in a relativistic calculation in the
quark-diquark approximation. We also check that our wave functions comply with
what it is expected in the infinite heavy quark mass limit.Comment: 3 latex pages, two tables. To appear in the INPC07 proceeding