Multi-antikaonic nuclei in the relativistic mean-field theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates the properties of multi-antikaonic nuclei using a relativistic mean-field model combined with chiral dynamics, focusing on density profiles, energies, and the effects of antikaon interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of $ar K-ar K$ interactions in multi-antikaonic nuclei within a relativistic framework, highlighting their impact on nuclear properties.

Findings

$ar K-ar K$ interactions are significantly repulsive at high antikaon numbers.

Both contact and meson-coupling contributions drive the repulsive interactions.

The results relate multi-antikaonic nuclei to kaon condensation phenomena.

Abstract

Properties of multi-antikaonic nuclei (MKN), where several numbers of $K^-$ mesons are bound, are studied in the relativistic mean-field model, combined with chiral dynamics for kaonic part of the thermodynamic potential. The density profiles for nucleons and $K^-$ mesons, the single particle energy of the $K^-$ mesons, and binding energy of the MKN are obtained. The effects of the $\bar K-\bar K$ interactions on these quantities are discussed in comparison with other meson ($\sigma$, $\omega$, and $\rho$)-exchange models. It is shown that the $\bar K-\bar K$ interactions originate from two contributions: One is the contact interaction between antikaons inherent in chiral symmetry, and the other is the one generated through coupling between the $K^-$ and meson mean fields. Both effects of the $\bar K-\bar K$ repulsive interactions become large on the ground state properties of the MKN as the number of the embedded $K^-$ mesons increases. A relation between the multi-antikaonic nuclei and kaon condensation in infinite and uniform matter is mentioned.