QUARK AND POLE MODELS OF NONLEPTONIC DECAYS OF CHARMED BARYONS

Quark and pole models of nonleptonic decays of charmed baryons are analyzed from the point view of their symmetry properties. The symmetry structure of the parity-conserving amplitudes that corresponds to the contribution of the ground-state intermediate baryons is shown to differ from the one hitherto employed in the symmetry approach. It is pointed out that the ''subtraction'' of sea quark effects in hyperon decays leads to an estimate of W-exchange contributions in charmed baryon decays that is significantly smaller than naively expected on the basis of SU(4). An SU(2)W constraint questioning the reliability of the factorization technique is exhibited. Finally, a successful fit to the available data is presented.