R. Strub, J.C. Chollet, M. Jung, M. Bourquin, R. Morand, Hartmute Plothow-Besch, J.P. Gerber, J.-M. Gaillard, Vincent J Smith, P.W. Jeffreys, B. Schiby, W.M. Gibson, J.-L. Riester, G. Sauvage, Daniel Froidevaux, R.M. Brown, B.J. Saunders, H. W. Siebert, K. P. Streit, P. Igo-Kemenes, B. Merkel, C.N.P. Gee, J. J. Thresher, J.-P. Repellin, A. Degré, and S. N. Tovey
In an experiment in the CERN SPS charged hyperon beam, a sample of 16 000Ω− decays was collected at an Ω− momentum of 131 GeV/c the Ω− lifetime, the branching ratios and decay asymmetry parameters for the main decay modes were measured, giving: τ Ω − =(0.823±0.015)×10 −10 s , Γ(Ω − →Λ K − ) Γ(Ω − -→ all ) =0.675±0.008 , α(Ω − →Λ K − )= −0.025±0.028, Γ(Ω − →Ξ 0 π − ) Γ(Ω − → all ) = 0.236±0.008 , α(Ω − →Ξ 0 π − )=0.09±0.14, Γ(Ω − →Ξ − π 0 ) Γ(Ω − → all ) =0.089±0.005 , α(Ω − →Ξ − π 0 )=0.05±0.21. For the rare decay modes, the following results for the branching ratios were obtained: if Γ(Ω − →Ξ 0 e − ν ) Γ(Ω − → all ) =(0.56±0.28)×10 −2 , if Γ(Ω − →Ξ − π + π − ) (Γ(Ω→ all ) =(3.7 −1.1 +3.6 )×10 −4 , Γ(Ω − →Ξ − γ) (Γ(ω − → all ) −3 at the 90% confidence level, Γ(Ω − →Λπ − ) (Γ(Ω − → all ) −4 at the 90% confidence level . A sample of 32 000 Ξ− decays collected under the same experimental conditions gave a new measurement of the Ξ− lifetime: τ Ξ − =(1.652±0.051)×10 −10 s . Combining the measurements of the present experiment with those obtained in a previous experiment in the SPS hyperon beam gives: if τ Ω − =(0.823±0.013)×10 −10 s , Γ(Ω − →Λ K − ) Γ(Ω − → all =0.678±0.007 , Γ(Ω − →Ξ 0 π − ) Γ(Ω − → all ) =0.236±0.007 , Γ(Ω − →Ξ − π 0 ) Γ(Ω − → all =0.086±0.004 , Γ(Ω − →Ξ − π + π − ) Γ(Ω − → all =(4.3 −1.3 +3.4 )×10 −4 . The experimental results are compared with theoretical calculations.