Predictions for decays of radially excited baryons

We consider the strong decays of the lowest-lying radially excited baryons, in SU(6) language the states comprising the first excited 56-plet. Assuming a single-quart; decay approximation, and negligible configuration mixing, we make model-independent predictions for the partial decay widths to final states with a single meson. Masses of unobserved states are predicted using results from large-N-c QCD, and the momentum dependence of the one-body decay amplitude is determined phenomenologically by fitting to observed decays, so that the baryon spatial wave functions are not assumed. We point out that comparison of these predictions to experiment may shed light on whether the Roper resonance can be consistently interpreted as a three-quark state. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.