First Lattice Study of Semileptonic Decays of Lambda_b and Xi_b Baryons

We present the results of the first lattice study of semileptonic decays of baryons containing a b-quark. Predictions for the decay distributions are given and the Isgur-Wise functions for heavy baryons are computed, for values of the velocity transfer up to about omega=1.2. The computations are performed on a 24^3 x 48 lattice at beta=6.2 using the Sheikholeslami-Wohlert action in the quenched approximation.