Exchange Currents in Radiative Hyperon Decays
A short overview of motivations and successes of two-body exchange currents between constituent quarks for electromagnetic hadron observables like charge radii, magnetic and quadrupole moments is given. We then predict and analyze exchange current effects on the radiative decay widths of decuplet hyperons, which are to be measured soon. In our chiral constituent quark model, exchange currents dominate the E2 transition amplitude, while they largely cancel for the M1 transition amplitude. Strangeness suppression of the radiative hyperon decays is weakened by exchange currents. The SU(F)_3 flavor symmetry breaking for the negatively charged hyperons is strong.