Searching for New Physics in Semi-Leptonic Baryon Decays

We propose two different and complementary observables for singling out possible signals of physics beyond the standard model in the semi-leptonic decays $\Lambda_b \to \Lambda_c \ell{\bar \nu}_{\ell}$, both with the $\tau$ lepton and with a light lepton. The two observables are the partial decay width and a T-odd asymmetry, whose respective sensitivities to scalar and/or pseudo-scalar coupling are calculated as functions of the parameters characterizing new physics. Two different form factors are used. Three particular cases are discussed and analyzed in detail.