DECAYS OF 1 2(-) BARYONS IN CHIRAL EFFECTIVE THEORY/

We construct an SU(3)(L) x SU(3)(R) symmetric chiral effective model w hich includes parity pair baryon fields. It is assumed that the positi ve and negative parity baryons in the parity pair have opposite chiral transformation properties than each other. Using this model, strong d ecays of the negative parity baryons are studied up to the order of on e-loop corrections. The results agree qualitatively with experiment in the pi and K channels. We examine how the model parameters are determ ined from the decay widths and study their physical meaning. The possi bilities to build other models and relations to the correlation functi on analysis are discussed. [S0556-2821(98)01907-9].