A Phenomenological Analysis of Non-resonant Charm Meson Decays

Abstract

We analyse the consequences of the usual assumption of a constant function to fit non-resonant decays from experimental Dalitz plot describing charmed meson decays. We first show, using the $D^{+}\to {\bar{K}}^0{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^0$ decay channel as an example, how an inadequate extraction of the non-resonant contribution could yield incorrect measurements for the resonant channels. We analyse how the correct study of this decay will provide a test for the validity of factorization in D meson decays. Finally, we show how form factors could be extracted from non-resonant decays. We particularly discuss about the form factor that can be measured from the $D_s^{+}\to {\pi }^{-}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{+}$ decay. We emphasize on its relevance for the study of the decay $\tau \to {\nu }_{\tau }3\pi$ and the extraction of the $a_1$ meson width.

Comments: 14 pages, Latex including 6 eps figures