Charmed and strange baryon production in 29 GeV electron positron annihilation

This dissertation presents measurements of the production rates of baryons with different strangeness and spin. The analyses presented here use data taken with the Mark III detector at the PEP storage ring, operating at a center of mass energy of 29 GeV. The ..xi../sup /minus// production rate is measured to be 0.017 +- 0.004 +- 0.004 per hadronic event, ..cap omega../sup /minus// production is measured to be 0.014 +- 0.006 +- 0.004 per hadronic event, and ..xi..*/sup 0/ production is less than 0.006 per hadronic event at a 90% confidence level. These measurements place strong constraints on models of baryon production. In particular, the unexpectedly high rate of ..cap omega../sup /minus// production is difficult to explain in any diquark based model. Semileptonic ..lambda../sub c//sup +/ decays have also been observed. Because neither the branching ratios nor the production rate are well known, it is difficult to interpret these results. However, they do indicate that the branching ratio for ..lambda../sub c//sup +/ ..-->.. ..lambda..l..nu.. may be higher than previous experimental measurements. 85 refs., 45 figs., 12 tabs.