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Polarization effects in the cascade decay Lambda_b -> Lambda(-> p pi-) + J/psi(-> l+ l-) in the covariant confined quark model

We calculate the invariant and helicity amplitudes for the nonleptonic decay Lambda_b -> Lambda + J/psi, psi(2S) in the covariant confined quark model. We discuss joint angular decay distributions in the cascade decay Lambda_b -> Lambda(-> p pi-) + J/psi, psi(2S) (-> l+ l-) and calculate some of the asymmetry parameters that characterize the joint angular decay distribution. We confirm expectations from the naive quark model that the transitions into the lambda_Lambda=1/2 helicity states of the daughter baryon Lambda are strongly suppressed leading to a near maximal negative polarization of the Lambda. For the same reason the azimuthal correlation between the two decay planes spanned by (p pi-) and (l+ l-) is negligibly small. We provide form factor results for the whole accessible q2-range. Our results are close to lattice results at minimum recoil and light-cone sum rule results at maximum recoil. A new feature of our analysis is that we include lepton mass effects in the calculation which allows us to also describe the cascade decay Lambda_b -> Lambda(-> p pi-) + psi(2S)(-> tau+ tau-).