Semileptonic baryon decays with a heavy quark

The semileptonic decay of spin-{} baryons is examined in the spectator-quark model, with special attention given to Λb→Λceν and Ωb→Ωceν. The polarization of the virtual W and of the daughter baryon is also considered, along with the joint angular distribution between the charged lepton and the daughter-baryon polarization vector. The Λb decays with about equal mixtures of transverse to longitudinal W polarization while the Ωb decays with predominately longitudinal W polarization. These reactions are representative of two qualitatively different classes: decays involving baryons whose spectators are spin singlets and those whose spectators are spin triplets.