Isospin Properties of ($K^-$, $N$) Reactions for the Formation of Deeply-bound Antikaonic Nuclei

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates the formation of deeply-bound antikaonic nuclei via ($K^-$, $N$) reactions, emphasizing isospin effects and calculating cross sections for nuclear targets like $^{12}$C and $^{28}$Si.

Contribution

It introduces a DWIA-based method considering isospin properties to predict formation cross sections of antikaonic states, highlighting the dominance of the ($K^-$, $n$) reaction channel.

Findings

Deeply-bound $ar{K}$ states are mainly populated by the ($K^-$, $n$) reaction.

Cross sections can reveal the structure of $ar{K}$ nuclear states through $N_{ m eff}$.

Inclusive spectra lack distinct peaks in the bound region for deep $ar{K}$ states.

Abstract

The formation of deeply-bound antikaonic $K^-/\bar{K}^0$ nuclear states by nuclear ($K^-$, $N$) reactions is investigated theoretically within a distorted-wave impulse approximation (DWIA), considering the isospin properties of the Fermi-averaged $K^-+ N \to N + \bar{K}$ elementary amplitudes. We calculate the formation cross sections of the deeply-bound $\bar{K}$ states by the ($K^-$, $N$) reactions on the nuclear targets, $^{12}$C and $^{28}$Si, at incident $K^-$ lab momentum $p_{K^-}$ = 1.0 GeV/c and $\theta_{\rm lab} = 0^{\circ}$, introducing a complex effective nucleon number $N_{\rm eff}$ for unstable bound states in the DWIA. The results show that the deeply-bound $\bar{K}$ states can be populated dominantly by the ($K^-$, $n$) reaction via the total isoscalar $\Delta T=0$ transition owing to the isospin nature of the $K^-+ N \to N + \bar{K}$ amplitudes, and that the cross sections described by ${\rm Re}N_{\rm eff}$ and ${\rm Arg}N_{\rm eff}$ enable to deduce the structure of the $\bar{K}$ nuclear states; the calculated inclusive nucleon spectra for a deep $\bar{K}$-nucleus potential do not show distinct peak structure in the bound region. The few-body $\bar{K}\otimes [NN]$ and $\bar{K}\otimes [NNN]$ states formed in ($K^-$, $N$) reactions on $s$-shell nuclear targets, $^3$He, $^3$H and $^4$He, are also discussed.