Mesonic and non-mesonic branching ratios of K^- absorption in the nuclear medium

TL;DR

This paper calculates the branching ratios of K^- absorption in nuclear matter, highlighting the dominant role of \\Lambda(1405) and the density-dependent increase in mesonic absorption ratio, aligning with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a chiral unitary approach to evaluate K^- absorption branching ratios, emphasizing the \\Lambda(1405) contributions and density effects, which are novel insights.

Findings

Both mesonic and non-mesonic absorption are dominated by \\Lambda(1405).

The mesonic absorption ratio increases with nuclear density.

Non-mesonic absorption accounts for about 30% at saturation density.

Abstract

The branching ratios of K^- absorption at rest in nuclear matter are evaluated from the K^- self-energy by using the chiral unitary approach for the s-wave \bar{K} N amplitude. We find that both the mesonic and non-mesonic absorption potentials are dominated by the \Lambda(1405) contributions. We also observe that the mesonic absorption ratio [\pi ^{-} \Sigma ^{+}] / [\pi ^{+} \Sigma ^{-}] increases as a function of nuclear density due to the interference between \Lambda(1405) and the I=1 non-resonant background, which is consistent with experimental results. The fraction of the non-mesonic absorption is evaluated to be about 30 % at the saturation density. The branching ratios of the K^- absorption at rest into deuteron and 4He are also calculated.