Paracharge phenomenology: systematics of the new hadrons

Abstract

A systematic semiquantitative account of all aspects of the strong and electromagnetic interactions of all the newly discovered hadronic states (the ψ's, the χ's, etc.) is presented within the framework of the paracharge scheme. Extensions of ideas familiar from the SU₃ classification scheme to SU₄ are shown to provide an understanding of the new states seen in the decays of ψ (3.1) and ψ' (3.7), including their masses and gross decay characteristics. The decays of ψ (3.1) and ψ' (3.7) themselves are studied in some detail. Since these are of electromagnetic origin in the scheme, their electromagnetic mixing with the resonance at 4.15 GeV (the P-state of the scheme) is important. Once this is taken into account, the resulting picture is in excellent agreement with available data.