Interference of kaon resonances

Abstract

Goldhaber has recently suggested that the Kππ system with an effective mass around 1300 MeV may contain two resonances of the same spin and parity, but belonging to SU(3) octets whose neutral, nonstrange members have opposite eigenvalues under charge conjugation. We have analyzed the situations in which these mesons could, through their common Kππ decay mode, interfere in the Kππ effective-mass distribution. In the SU(3) limit, for example, the two mesons can interfere in the K⁺π⁺π^- mass if one only analyzes events in the K⁰π⁺ region of the Dalitz plot, but they cannot interfere if one includes both K⁰π⁺ and ρ⁰K⁺ events. We have also included effects of SU(3) breaking, both by putting in physical masses wherever possible, and by considering particle mixing, which vanishes in the SU(3) limit.