DISTINGUISHING AMONG STRONG DECAY MODELS

Two competing models for strong hadronic decays, the 3P0 and 3S1 models, are currently in use. Attempts to rule out one or the other have been hindered by a poor understanding of final state interactions and by ambiguities in the treatment of relativistic effects. In this article we study meson decays in both models, focusing on certain amplitude ratios for which the relativistic uncertainties largely cancel out (notably the S/D ratios in b1→πω and a1→πρ), and using a quark Born formalism to estimate the final state interactions. We find that the 3P0 model is strongly favored. In addition, we predict a P/F amplitude ratio of 1.6±0.2 for the decay π2→πρ. We also study the parameter dependence of some individual amplitudes (as opposed to amplitude ratios) in an attempt to identify a ''best'' version of the 3P0 model. © 1994 The American Physical Society.