Radiative Decays of Excited Vector Mesons

Radiative decays of the $1^3{S}_1$ radial and $1^3{D}_1$ orbital excitations of the $\rho$, $\omega$ and $\varphi$ are calculated in the quark model, using wave functions obtained variationally from the Hamiltonian with standard quark-model parameters. The larger radiative widths should be measurable at new high-intensity facilities being proposed, and in some cases may be measurable in data from existing experiments. The radiative decays are a strong discriminator between the $1^3{S}_1$ and $1^3{D}_1$ excitations, and can also be used to provide unique information about the decay products.