Because these measurements all come from a single experiment with identical reconstruction methods and similar analysis requirements, the suite of measurements is more valuable than the sum of the measurements individually.
However, each of these measurements offers an opportunity for improvement. The systematic errors on the and mass difference measurements will be reduced by incorporating the forthcoming correction to the FOCUS momentum scale. The other measurements can be improved by including additional decay modes which should reduce the statistical errors on the measurements. Due to time and other constraints, it was not possible to include other decay modes in this thesis.
Efforts to perform mass (and possibly width) measurements for the excited
states are under way, and searches for the and
(which
would complete the spectrum of L=0 charmed baryons) are planned. The
knowledge gained from these measurements, combined with the values presented in
this thesis, may provide renewed impetus for refined theoretical models of
heavy baryons.