Two decay channels of the ω(782) meson, into π+π-π0 and π+π-, are studied. The dynamics of the three-pion channel is represented using a two-dimensional distribution, called a Dalitz plot. A high-statistics Dalitz plot distribution is needed to test theoretical predictions and increase understanding of the decay mechanism. The isospin-breaking two-pion decay gives insight into the ρ-ω mixing. The ω→π+π- decay has previously been studied in π+π- spectra in high statistics e+e- experiments and with lower statistics in hadroproduction experiments. The collected evidence indicates that the resulting interference pattern strongly depends on the production reaction. In 2011 an experiment to investigate ω hadronic decays in pd→3Heω reaction was performed with the WASA detector. Two studies based on the collected data are included in this thesis. In the first, the dominant decay channel ω→π+π-π0 is selected and two experimental Dalitz plot distributions are created. Each distribution corresponds to one of the two incident beam energies used in the experiment. A fit to the Dalitz plots is performed using a parametrisation including the expected P-wave shape. The result indicates an onset of the intermediate ρ in the two-pion channel, as predicted by theoretical models. The efficiency corrected Dalitz plot bin contents are reported to facilitate comparison to theoretical predictions by direct fits to the experimental data. In the second study, the ω→π+π- decay channel is selected. For events with a 3Heπ+π- final state, the 3He missing mass is constructed in search for the ρ-ω interference pattern in pd production. No significant deviations around the ω mass position was found. Dedicated studies using experimental data to estimate background contribution and to extract signal acceptance shows that the background is too large to observe the expected signal with the collected data sample. The last part of the thesis presents pre-studies for using data collected at the KLOE detector for an ω→π+π-π0 Dalitz plot analysis. Since the ω mesons are produced in the e+e-→ωπ0 reaction, the study focuses on the impact of the π0-π0 interference.

The mechanism of the isospin violating η→π+π−π0 decay is studied in a high precision experiment using a Dalitz plot analysis. The process is sensitive to the difference between up and down quark masses. The measurement provides an important input for the determination of the light quark masses and for the theoretical description of the low energy strong interactions. The measurement was carried out between 2004 and 2005 using the KLOE detector at the DAΦNE e+e− collider located in Frascati, Italy. The data was collected at a center of mass energy corresponding to the φ-meson peak (1019.5 MeV) with an integrated luminosity of 1.6 fb−1. The source of the η-mesons is the radiative decay of the φ-meson: e+e−→φ→ηγ, resulting in the world’s largest data sample of about 4.7·106 η→π+π−π0 decay events. In this thesis, the KLOE Monte Carlo simulation and reconstruction programs are used to optimize the background rejection cuts and to evaluate the signal efficiency. The background contamination in the final data sample is below 1%. The data sample is used to construct the Dalitz plot distribution in the normalized dimensionless variables X and Y. The distribution is parametrized by determining the coefficients of the third order polynomial in the X and Y variables (so called Dalitz plot parameters). The statistical accuracy of the extracted parameters is two times better than any of the previous measurements. In particular the contribution of the X2Y term is found to be different from zero with a significance of approximately 3σ. The systematic effects are studied and found to be of the same size as the statistical uncertainty. The contribution of the terms related to charge conjugation violation (odd powers of the X variable) and the measured charge asymmetries are consistent with zero. The background subtracted and acceptance corrected bin contents of the Dalitz plot distribution are provided to facilitate direct comparison with other experiments and with theoretical calculations.