Dalitz plot

The Dalitz plot is a scatter diagram often finds application in particle physics. The succession occurred values ​​of kinematic variables of a scattering or decay experiment are entered as points in an xy chart. The point density then shows how often encounter certain kinematic configurations of the end products of, for example Dreikörperzerfällen.

The kinematics of a three-body decay can be completely described with only two variables. In conventional Dalitz plots the axes indicate the square of the invariant mass of two pairs of the decay products. Disintegrates such as particles A in three particles 1, 2 and 3, could be applied in a Dalitz diagram for this decomposition on the x- axis and the y - axis, the four pulses and the square of the Minkowski product is with yourself.

If a decay is a pure three-body decay, in which the mother particle decays directly into three particles, the distribution in the Dalitz plot can be uniform. Dreikörperzerfälle but are often dominated by resonances, in which the mother particles initially divided into two product particles, one of which weiterzerfällt immediately in the two final products. In this case, the Dalitz diagram showing non-uniform distribution with increased dot density in the range of the mass of the resonant decay. In this way, the Dalitz diagram is an excellent tool to study the dynamics of Dreikörperzerfällen.

RH Dalitz led this method a in 1953 to study the decay of K mesons, which were then called " tau- mesons ". It can also be extended to Vierkörperzerfälle. A specific shape of four- particle Dalitz charts (for non relativistic kinematics), which are based on a tetrahedral coordinates system was first developed to analyze four atomic particle fragmentation processes.