A NNALES DE L ’I. H. P., SECTION A
C LAUDE H ENRY
E DUARDO DE R AFAEL
Relativistic theory of angular correlations in successive two-body decays of unstable particles
Annales de l’I. H. P., section A, tome 2, n
o2 (1965), p. 87-104
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87
Relativistic theory of angular correlations in successive two-body decays
of unstable particles
Claude HENRY
(1)
Eduardo de RAFAELInstitut des Hautes
Etudes Scientifiques
Bures-sur-Yvette
(Seine-et-Oise),
France.Ann. Inst. Poincaré,
Vol. II, nO 2, 1965,
Physique théorique.
ABSTRACT. - Relations for the
study
ofangular
correlations in successivetwo-body decay
processes are derived fromgeneral
relativistic invarianceprinciples.
Thedescription
ofarbitrary spin
states is discussed in terms of thedensity
matrix formalism. Use is made ofmultipole expansion techniques
derived from the basic transformation laws ofphysical
statesand
operators.
I.
2014 INTRODUCTION
Evidence for the existence of new
particles
and resonance states has beenaccumulating during
the last few years. Thestudy
ofangular
correlations in theirdecay products
has beenproviding
information on theirspin
valuesand
parities,
and also on theplausible dynamical
mechanisms for the pro- duction reaction processes. The theoreticaldescription
of these studies has been discussed in the literature in relation to theparticular phenomena
under consideration
[7]. Usually, they
consist inderiving
the relevantkinematical relations in a
particular
frame of reference. Theunderlying
(1) Aspirant
du Fonds National de la RechercheScientifique.
ANN. mo. PorNcARf, A-1!-2 7
HENRY AND EDUARDO DE RAFAEL
principle
of thesetechniques
is Relativistic Invariance inQuantum
Mecha..nics
[2].
In this paper we derivegeneral
formulae for thestudy
ofangular
correlations in successive
two-body decay
processes. We show howthey
follow from the basic transformation laws of
physical
states andoperators.
The relations obtained are formulated with
respect
to a frame-tetrad(see
Section II
A)
which can be chosenarbitrarily.
Thus the covariance ofour
equations
is assured and can be shownexplicitly
at anystep
of a compu- tation(see
forexample
the derivation of a covariantdensity
matrix fora
particle
ofarbitrary spin
in Section IIC.)
Thetopics
discussed have been summarized at thebeginning
of each section. We refer toAppendix
Ifor notations and a summary of formulae necessary for the derivation of several
equations
in the text.II. - RELATIVISTIC DESCRIPTION OF PARTICLES WITH ARBITRARY SPIN
Let us call X a certain resonance state or a
particle produced
in somereaction process
The
sample
of X’sproduced
in( 1 )
has aspin
distribution which is conve-niently
characterizedby
the use of thedensity
matrix formalism[3].
Inthis section we wish to summarize the essential features of a relativistic
description
of this formalism[4].
A. - Frames of
reference.
We call tetrad a set of four
4-vectors {
t,n~l~ ~
i =1, 2, 3,
such that(see Appendix
I fornotations)
and
In what follows we shall refer all the kinematics to a
specific
frame-tetrad
{ t, n },
i. e.,if p
denotes the 4-vector energy momentum of a par-ticle,
say X in(1),
thenwill be the energy and momentum
components of p in
this frame-tetrad.For
example,
if t is chosenalong p,
i. e., t =p/m,
where m denotes the massof
X,
then we are in the rest-frame of X. We shall choose one of the axes say n(3) - n, as the direction ofquantization
of thespin
of the X in its rest-frame. If t is takenalong
another direction(corresponding
to thelaboratory system,
or to the C. M. system in(1)). we
shall choose the quan- tization axis of thespin
of the Xalong
the 4-vector s(s2
= -1,
s . p =0)
obtained from n
by
the pure Lorentz transformation whichbrings t
uponp/m
= u and leaves invariant the2-plane orthogonal
to t and u,with
[5]
Explicitly
B. -
One-particle
states.We shall use Dirac’s
notation
for the state of aparticle
of energy-momentum p, spin j,
andmagnetic quantum
number À= - j,
... ,j,
definedas the
spin-projection along s (see Eq. (4)).
Thestates
areeigensta-
tes of the energy-momentum
operator plL, corresponding
to theeigen-
value
p’~,
Let
Wp
denote the restriction of thepolarization operator [6]
to theeigen-
states of P . Then
and
The states
~ yX )
are normalized as followswith
The set of
vectors ~ 7~ )
with x = -j, ..., j
defines a basis in the repre- sentation space of aparticle
of mass m # 0 andspin j.
For a
given
Poincaré transformation[7] (a, A),
the induced transforma- tion of the vector basis isperformed by
aunitary operator U(a, A) according
to the relation
[8]
Here, R(p, A)
is a rotation of the little group of t(1.
g. oft)
defined thusand
A)]À’À
the matrix elements of the irreduciblerepresentation
of the rotation group. From the set of A transformations let us consider
- /~
those A’s
belonging
to the 1. g.of t,
i. e., such that At = t.According
to(12)
N ~
we can
identify R(p, A)
and A if andonly
ifThis means that for a
given
p, once is chosen(for example
as in(5)),
where ~1’ denotes a
specific
transformationbelonging
to the 1. g.of t,
must be fixedaccording
to(13),
i. e.,Then
and hence relation
(13)
holds for all the vectorsA’p/m. Therefore,
whenrestricted to rotations R of the 1. g.
of t,
the transformation law(11)
canbe
simply
writtenThe Hilbert space of the states consists of the vectors
with the scalar
product defined, according
to(10),
thusThe
expressions
ANGULAR CORRELATIONS
are the
(2j
+1) spin-components
of the wave-functiondescribing
aparticle
of
energy-momentum p
andspin j.
Their transformationlaw,
first derivedby Wigner [9],
readswhere
Q(p, A)
are theunitary (2j
+1) by (2j
+1)
matricesof the rotation group.
C. -
Spin density
matrix.Consider a
sample
of X’sproduced
in( 1 ),
with fixed energy-momen- tum p. This is describedby
an incoherent mixture of(2j
+1) orthogonal states
of purepolarization,
each withprobability
cn(0
cn1).
This mixture can be characterized
by
thedensity
matrixoperator
Let us call the matrix elements of
pcp)
in the basis defined in the last section.According
to(18)
their transformation law is(see AI.1)
The
product
ofrepresentations appearing
in(20)
isequivalent
to the directsum of irreducible
representations A)],
with 0 L2j.
Therefore,
it will be convenient to expressp(/?)
as a sum of irreducible tensoroperators [10] (0 L 2j,
- L ML)
i. e., such thatUsing
the normalizationthe
density
matrixoperator
can beexpanded
thusCLAUDE HENRY AND EDUARDO DE RAFAEL
where
are the so called
multipole-parameters
of thedensity
matrix. The hermi-ticity
ofimplies
and tr
p(p)
= 1requires
= 1. Themagnitudes
of the non zerot~~~ (P)
are further restrictedby
the fact that ispositive
definite. Thuse. g., tr
p2(p) ~
trp(p),
leads to the conditionIn the basis defined
by
theone-particle states ~ p, jx ~,
the matrix ele- mentsT~ (p)~~
are3 - j symbol
coefficients(see AI. 2).
This followsfrom the theorem of
Wigner-Eckart
and the normalization defined in
(22).
ThusIn this
representation,
themultipole-parameters
aregiven by
The components
satisfy
the restrictionsThe operators
(p)
can beexplicitly
constructed in thefollowing
way.Let us consider the
spin
operatorANGULAR CORRELATIONS IN
...
where s denotes the three 4-vectors obtained from the
space-like
compo--+
nents n of the frame-tetrad
(see Eq. (2)) by
the pure Lorentz transfor- mation defined in(5),
From the
operator p
we form thespherical
harmonicY (Sp), completely
symmetrized
withrespect
to thecomponents
ofp.
ThenThe
expansion
ofp(/?)
in terms of theseoperators
can berearranged
in acompletely
covariant way[11] ] (ai
=0, 1,2,
3 for 1 iL)
where
W;
denote thecomponents
of thepolarization
4-vectoroperator,
and
[12]
.The
properties
of thepseudo-tensors
follow from their definition :a ) they
arecompletely symmetric
and theircomponents
arereal ; b) they
areorthogonal
to the energy-momentum 4-vector p,with
Relation
d) gives
thedegree
ofpolarization
2L -polar :
CLAUDE HENRY AND EDUARDO DE RAFAEL
For L =
1,
i. e., theordinary degree
ofpolarization,
we get thefollowing upper-bound
Sometimes
it is convenient to describe thepolarization
in terms of the so-+ ~
called Stokes-vector
03BE(p),
such that 0§( p)2
1 .According
to the upper--+
bound found for
8(1),
the relation betweenE(p)
and themultipole-para-
meters t(1)M(p) is
III. - RELATIVISTIC DESCRIPTION
OF TWO-BODY DECAYS
In this section we discuss the kinematical
properties
of thescattering amplitude
of the processwhere an unstable
particle
X ofenergy-momentum
p andspin j decays
intoa
particle
Y ofenergy-momentum
pi andspin
s, and aspinless particle y
of
energy-momentum
P2. We shall use the shorthand notationfor the
scattering-amplitude
in(43).
Here Àand y, the magnetic quantum
numbers ofparticles
X andY,
are defined as followsand
The transformations and are pure Lorentz transformations defined as in
(5).
The Lorentz transformation whichbrings p/m
uponp1/m1
is defined thus
ANGULAR CORRELATIONS IN TWO-BODY DECAYS
i. e., we first
bring p/m
to rest and then upon Note that this trans..formation is such that
i. e., it also transforms the
corresponding quantization
axis. In what follows we derive themultipole expansion
of thescattering amplitude
in
(43),
and thedecay angular
distribution of Y’s.A. -
Multipole expansion
of thescattering amplitude.
From
(14)
and(44),
andusing (AI. 1)
we can derive the transformation of the matrix elements of thescattering-amplitude,
inducedby
a rotation Rof the 1. g.
of t,
Let us
multiply
both sides of(49)
AI.2)
and take summationover and x.
Using (AI. 3)
we are led to the relation(summation
over y, Àand m, I,
À)
If we call
S(b(Pb p)
the linear combination(summation
over X and[1.)
then relation
(50)
tells us that the functionsp)
with m = -/,
...,1,
transform under rotations like the
complex conjugate spherical
harmo-nics
Moreover,
the kinematicaldependence
of eachS’8lPh p)
canbe
expressed
in terms of twoangular parameters
which we choose as thecomponents
of the unit 3-vector[13]
DE
where
Consider now the invariant
quantities (invariant
withrespect
to the rotations of the 1. g. oft)
where
/=y2014 ~~2014~+1, ... , j + s is
the orbitalangular
momentum.This we shall call the lth
multipole-amplitude
of the process(43).
Accor-ding
to this definition andusing
the inverse relation of(51 ),
we canexpand
the
scattering-amplitude
in terms ofmultipole-amplitudes
as followsB. -
Decay angular
distribution.The
angular
distribution of Y’s in thedecay (43)
is defined thuswhere tr means trace in the
polarization
space. From(55), (23)
and(28),
and after some
algebraic manipulations
where use of(AI.4)
and(AI.5)
is
made,
thefollowing expression
forI(pI, p)
can be derivedN
where 1 and 1 take the
values: j
-s, j - s + 1,
N...,y+
s ;and 0 L 2j.
If
parity
is conserved in(43)
then1-~-
1 must be even and henceonly
termswith even L will be relevant in
(57).
ANGULAR CORRELATIONS IN TWO-BODY DECAYS
IV. - ANGULAR CORRELATIONS
Consider now the set of reactions
and assume that
particle
Z hasenergy-momentum
p~ andspin k,
and that zis a
spinless particle
of energy-momentum p4. Thetechniques
set downin the last section can here be likewise
applied
to derive theangular
distri-bution of Z’s.
However,
thisrequires
anexplicit knowledge
of thedensity
matrix of Y’s. In this section we derive the
general expression
for theangular dependence
of themultipole-parameters
which characterize thesample
of Y’s. Thisprovides
thenecessary
information for thestudy
ofany
angular
correlationproblem.
Inparticular
we derive theangular dependence
of thelongitudinal polarization of Y’s,
withrespect
to a frame-tetrad,
and the connection between theaveraged multipole-parameters
ofthe
sample
of Y’s and those of X’s. Somespecific examples
are discussed.A. -
Angular dependence
ofmultipole parameters.
The
density
matrix of Y’sproduced
in thedecay (43)
isand
according
to(29)
the associatedmultipole
parameters arewith 0
L’
2s.’
Making
use of themultipole expansions
forp(p)
andp),
asgiven
in(23)
and(28),
and(55) respectively,
theangular dependence
ofp)
reads
HENRY AND EDUARDO DE RAFAEL
Here,
we first use(AI . 5)
to express theangular dependence
in aspherical
harmonic
pl)] alone,
and next thefollowing
relation(see
e. g.ref.
[20])
This
expression
can be further condensedintroducing
a9 - j symbol (see (AI.6)).
We are thus led to the rathercompact
formulaThis relation
gives
theangular dependence
of themultipole-parameters
of Y’s in terms of the
multipole-amplitudes
of thedecay (43)
and the multi-pole-parameters
of thedensity
matrixdescribing
thesample
of X’s.B. -
Angular dependence
of the Stokes-vector.The Stokes-vector
(see (42)) describing
thepolarization
of Y’sproduced
in a
given
directione(p, pl),
is obtained from theexpression given
in(63)
for L’ =
1,
As a
particular case,
theangular dependence
of thelongitudinal
compo- nent,p). e~p, p1),
withrespect
to aframe-tetrad {
t,n } (see
equa- tions(2)),
can beeasily
derived.Using (AI. 5)
we getThis
expression
reduces to aparticularly simple
form when s =1 /2 [14].
-
Then
/, / =7 i{i 1/2.
If we call oc theasymmetry parameter
the final result is
C. -
Averages
ofmultipole parameters.
Let us
call p) ~
the average of themultipole-parameters
of Y’sover their
angular
distributionThese averages can be
easily
evaluatedusing
thegeneral expression given
in
(63).
For Y’sproduced
from asample
of X’s with fixed energy-momen-tum p,
,CLAUDE HENRY AND EDUARDO DE RAFAEL
Using (AI. 7)
and theexplicit
values of the3 - j symbols appearing
in(69),
we
finally get
This relation
gives
theproportionality
coefficient between averages of themultipole-parameters
of Y’s and thecorresponding multipole-parameters
of X’s. As a
particular
case of(70),
when L =1,
weget
Let us choose the axis of
quantization along
the normal to thescattering 3-plane
of the reaction(1). Then, if 8y
and~x
denote thecomponent along
this axis of the Stokes-vector of Y’s and
X’s,
from(42)
and(71)
it followsthat
The
application
of thepreceding
relation in the determination of thespin-parity
ofstrange baryonic
resonances hasrecently
been discussedby
one of us
[15] :
assume that(43)
is astrong decay
andparticle
Y hasspin 1/2 (e.
g.[16] Y* ( 1 660)
- A + 7t;Yo( 1 815)
~ ~+ +7t-);
then it follows from(72)
thatand
In reference
(15)
it is discussedhow ( ðy >
and8x
can be obtained from theexperimental
data. Then for asufficiently high
number of events, rela- tion(73)
or(74)
leads to thespin-parity
determination of the X.As an
application
of the restrictiongiven
in(30)
we would like to comment on the resonance at 1 250MeV,
calledf °.
Atpresent
there is no conclusiveassignment
for itsspin value, although
recentexperi-
mental data
[17]
indicate that thef°
is anisotopic singlet ~I = 0) and,
therefore,
that itsspin j
is even. Theexperimental
data on thedecay angular
distribution of
the f0
indicate[18] that j >
2. Let us consider thequantities
where 03C0 is a unit vector
along
the momentum of one of thedecay
1t’S inthe rest
system
of thef °, and
the average of thespherical
har-monic over the
angular
distribution of the~° decay.
From therestriction stated in
(30)
it follows thatFor
example :
These
upper-bounds
can be used to eliminate some of thepossible
values ofthe
spin
of thef °.
Further
applications
of the formalismpresented
in this paper are atpresent
being
studied(see
e. g., ref.[19]).
APPENDIX I
In this
appendix
we define our notations and collect a number of formulae which are necessary for the derivation of several relations stated in the text. Weadopt
the definitions and conventions ofWigner’s
book onGroup Theory [20]
with two
exceptions :
1) complex conjugation
is indicatedby
a bar(e.
g., is theconjugate
oft~M~);
2)
the(Hermitian) adjoint
of an operator or a matrix p is denotedby
p*.We use the scalar
product
notation I.n =gaat«na
with :~03BB 03BD03C1 is the
totally antisymmetric pseudo
tensor of the fourth rank with ~0123 = 1.Summation is understood when the same indices appear co-and
contravariantly (The
sameapplies
to the 3 - jsymbols).
Summary
of formul0153
The connection between co-and contravariant components of the
3 - j symbols
is :(summation
over M andL)
ANGULAR CORRELATIONS IN TWO-BODY DECAYS
[1]
Wegive
a list of recent works on thesesubjects,
where references to the earlier literature can be found :N. BYERS and S. FENSTER, Phys. Rev. Letters, t.
11, 1963,
p. 52;M. ADEMOLLO and R.
GATO, Phys.
Rev.,t. 133,
1964, p. B 531;M. ADEMOLLO, R. GATO and G. PREPARATA,
Phys.
Rev. Letters, t.12,
1964, p. 462;K. GOTTFRIED and J. D. JACKSON, Nuovo Cimento, t. 33,
1964,
p. 309 ;Phys.
Rev. Letters, t.
8,
1964, p. 144;J. D. JACKSON and H. PILKUHN, Nuovo Cimento, t. 33, 1964, p. 906 and errata.
J. D. JACKSON, CERN
preprint.
For a survey
concerning
the non-relativistic treatment ofangular
corre-lations in nuclear
physics,
see S. DEVONS and L. J. B. GOLDFARB, Hand- buch derPhysik,
t.42,
1957, p. 362.[2]
E. P. WIGNER, Ann. Math., t.40,
1939, p. 149. See also A. S.WIGHTMAN,
L’invariance dans la mécanique quantique
relativiste,
LesHouches, 1960,
p. 160-226. H.
Joos,
Forstchr.Physik,
t.10, 1962,
p. 65.[3] See e. g., U. FANO, Rev. Modern
Phys.,
t.29,
1957, p. 74.[4]
L. MICHEL, Suppl.
NuovoCimento,
t.14, 1959,
p. 95.[5]
See e. g., H. BACRY,Thèse,
Université deMarseille,
1963.[6]
IfM03BD03C1
denotes the totalangular
momentum tensor operator, thepolariza-
tion operator is W
= 1/2 ~ 03BD03C103C3M03BD03C1P03C3.
Its mathematicalsignificance
andphysical implications
are discussed in L. MICHEL, Loc. cit., ref[4].
[7]
We call Poincaré transformations those of theinhomogeneous
LorentzGroup £.
In(a, 039B), a
denotes the translation element and 039B the homo- geneous Lorentz transformation.[8] See e. g., H. Joos, Loc. cit., ref
[2].
[9]
See E. P. WIGNER, Loc. cit., ref [2].[10]
See e. g., U. FANO and G. RACAH, Irreducible Tensorial Sets, Academic Press Inc., New York, 1959.[11]
See L. MICHEL, Loc. cit., ref. [4].[12]
Let us illustrate the construction ofY(L)M(S03B11,..., s03B1L)
in(35) by
anexample :
Y(2)1(s03B11,s03B12) = - 1/2 ~15 403C0 (s(3)03B11s(1)03B12
+s(1)03B11s(3)03B12
+is(3)03B11s(2)03B12 + is(2)03B11s(3)03B12).
[13] The
expression (p1
~p) 03BD
is theantisymmetric
tensorp 1p03BD - p p03BD1.
Note thatin the rest frame of X, i. e., when t =
p/m, 0113(p, p1)
is the unit 3-vectoralong
the momentum of Y.
[14] See e. g., N. BYERS and S. FENSTER, Loc. cit., ref. [1].
[15] E. DE RAFAEL, Nuovo Cimento, t.
33,
1964, p. 237.[16] For a recent survey concerning Strange-Particle Resonant States and refe-
rences to the
literature,
see R. H. DALITZ, Ann. Rev. Nuc. Sci., t.13, 1963,
p. 339.ANN. INST. POINCARÉ, A-II-2 8
AND EDUARDO DE RAFAEL
[17]
N. GELFAND etal., Phys.
Rev. Letters, t.12,
1964, p. 567;G. BENSON et al.,
Phys.
Rev. Letters, t.12,
1964, p. 600;M. ADERHOLZ et al., Phys. Rev. Letters, t. 10, 1964, p. 240.
[18] Y. Y. LEE et al., Phys. Rev. Letters, t. 12, 1964, p. 342.
[19] E. DE RAFAEL,
Physics
Letters, t.11,
1964, p. 260.[20] E. P. WIGNER, Group
Theory
and its application to the quantum mechanicsof
atomic spectra, Academic Press, New York, 1959.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank Professor L. Michel for many
enlightening
discus-sions and constant
guidance
in this work. Weacknowledge gratefully
thekind
hospitality
of Dr. L. Motchane at the Institut des HautesEtudes Scientifiques
and the financialsupport
of the Fonds National de la RechercheScientifique
ofBelgium
for one of us(C. H.)
and of the Centre National de la RechercheScientifique
for the other(E.
deR.)
Furthermore we would like to thank Dr. D. N. Williams for
pointing
outan error in