How Deep is the Antinucleon Optical Potential at FAIR energies

TL;DR

This paper investigates the depth of the antinucleon optical potential at FAIR energies using the non-linear derivative model, revealing a suppressed potential consistent with empirical data and resolving previous theoretical conflicts.

Contribution

The study applies the NLD model to antinucleon interactions, demonstrating a significant reduction in optical potential at relevant energies, aligning with empirical observations and addressing prior theoretical issues.

Findings

Strong decrease of vector and scalar self-energies at FAIR energies

Suppressed optical potential consistent with empirical data

Resolves G-parity argument conflicts in RMF models

Abstract

The key question in the interaction of antinucleons in the nuclear medium concerns the deepness of the antinucleon-nucleus optical potential. In this work we study this task in the framework of the non-linear derivative (NLD) model which describes consistently bulk properties of nuclear matter and Dirac phenomenology of nucleon-nucleus interactions. We apply the NLD model to antinucleon interactions in nuclear matter and find a strong decrease of the vector and scalar self-energies in energy and density and thus a strong suppression of the optical potential at zero momentum and, in particular, at FAIR energies. This is in agreement with available empirical information and, therefore, resolves the issue concerning the incompatibility of G-parity arguments in relativistic mean-field (RMF) models. We conclude the relevance of our results for the future activities at FAIR.