The baryon has quark content

PHYSICS · Subjective · Fermi University Physics · Quantum Mechanics · Particle Physics & Quantum Fields · Particles, interactions and experiment

Particle Physics, Ch Hadrons: baryons, mesons and their quark content

Problem

The

\Omega^-

baryon has quark content

sss

, spin

3/2

, and measured mass

1672.5\,\mathrm{MeV}/c^2

. Someone argues: "Spin is really the orbital motion of the quarks going around inside the baryon, so three

s

quarks can always arrange their orbits to avoid ever being in exactly the same state; no extra colour label is needed for

\Omega^-

. Also, taking the strange quark mass as

95\,\mathrm{MeV}/c^2

, the sum

3\times 95 = 285\,\mathrm{MeV}/c^2

is a sizeable fraction of

1672.5\,\mathrm{MeV}/c^2

, so most of the mass is explained. Finally, since

\Omega^-

has strangeness

-3

, any reconstructed

V

-shaped decay with a total charge of

-1

among its products must be the

\Omega^-

." Identify every error in this argument and give the correct statement in each case.