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Lance Pollard
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What does the first column in the "decay modes" table mean (in Particle Data Group documents)?

As a follow-up to this more general question, what are the values in the first column of each of the "decay tables" in a PDG document describing?

snapshot

What are those things in the first column? Are they just decay equations? That is, could you rewrite all of those like this?

  • $f_0(1370) \to ππ$
  • $f_0(1370) \to 4π$
  • $f_0(1370) \to 4π^0$
  • $f_0(1370) \to 2π^+2π^-$
  • $f_0(1370) \to π^+π^-2π^0$
  • $f_0(1370) \to ρρ$
  • $f_0(1370) \to 2(ππ)_{S-wave}$
  • ...

Or do they mean something different? Basically, what are they saying in general? Looking through the the document linked to in the image above, there are forms those values in the first column of the "decay modes" table. Is there a standard sort of "syntax" for writing these things out?

Also, what does the indentation signify? That is, why is there a bunch of stuff nested under $4π$ and stuff under $6π$?

Lance Pollard
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