Nuclear Medium Effects from Hadronic Atoms

Abstract

The state of the art in the study of π − , K − and Σ − atoms, along with the inmedium nuclear interactions deduced for these hadrons, is reviewed. A special emphasis is placed on recent developments inK-nuclear physics, where a strongly attractive density dependent K − -nuclear potential of order 150-200 MeV in nuclear matter emerges by fitting K − -atom data. This has interesting repercussions onK quasibound nuclear states, on the composition of strange hadronic matter and onK condensation in self bound hadronic systems.

Recent studies of kaonic atoms and nuclear clusters

“…of Fig. 4 for Ni by plotting overlaps of the 4f atomic radial wavefunction squared with the Ni matter density ρ m for two choices of V K − [29]; see also Refs. [30,31].…”

“…A reaction that could discriminate between deep and shallow K − nuclear Figure 4: Left: overlap of K − -Ni atomic 4f radial wavefunction R squared with Ni matter density ρ m in two models [29]. Right: 1s Λ formation rates per K − stop from K − capture at rest spectra taken by FINUDA [33] and as calculated [34] -normalized to the 7 Λ Li datumusing in-medium density dependent K − n → π − Λ branching rates that relate subthreshold energies to densities similarly to Eq.…”