K +–nucleus elastic scattering revisited from the perspective of partial restoration of chiral symmetry

Abstract

The K + meson properties in the nuclear medium are investigated by considering the wavefunction renormalization as a first step to reveal the in-medium properties of the K + meson in the context of partial restoration of chiral symmetry. The K + N elastic scattering amplitude is constructed using chiral perturbation theory up to the next-to-leading order. Using the constructed amplitude, we calculate the wavefunction renormalization in the Thomas-Fermi approximation. We obtained a good description of the K + N elastic scattering amplitude. The obtained wavefunction renormalization factor suggests the 2 to 6% enhancement of the K + N interaction at the saturation density. We conclude that the wavefunction renormalization could be one of the important medium effects for the K + meson.

Mesons in Nuclei and Partial Restoration of Chiral Symmetry

“…Here we would like to explain this enhancement as the wave function renormalization [30]. If the in-medium self-energy has strong energy-dependence, the wave function renormalization plays an important role for the in-medium effect as one of the next-to-leading corrections of the linear density approximation [3].…”