The (K-,p) reaction on nuclei with in-flight kaons

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to analyze in-flight kaon interactions with nuclei, concluding that the (K-,p) reaction spectrum is not sensitive enough to determine the kaon optical potential, supporting a shallow potential consistent with chiral models.

Contribution

The paper provides a detailed theoretical analysis showing the limited sensitivity of the (K-,p) reaction spectrum to the kaon optical potential, challenging previous interpretations of a deeply attractive potential.

Findings

The (K-,p) reaction spectrum is not suitable for determining the kaon optical potential.

A shallow kaon nucleus optical potential aligns with experimental data.

Uncertainties from experimental coincidence requirements affect potential extraction.

Abstract

We perform a theoretical study of the spectrum of protons with kinetic energies of around 600 MeV, emitted following the interaction of 1 GeV/c kaons with nuclei. A recent experimental analysis of this (K-,p) reaction on 12C, based on the dominant quasielastic process, has suggested a deeply attractive kaon nucleus potential. Our Monte Carlo simulation considers, in addition, the one-and two-nucleon K- absorption processes producing hyperons that decay into \pi N pairs. We find that this kaon in-flight reaction is not well suited to determine the kaon optical potential due, essentially, to the limited sensitivity of the cross section to its strength, but also to unavoidable uncertainties from the coincidence requirement applied in the experiment. A shallow kaon nucleus optical potential obtained in chiral models is perfectly compatible with the observed spectrum.