# Are there any narrow $K^-$- nuclear states?

## TL;DR

This study uses advanced theoretical models to investigate the existence of narrow $K^-$-nuclear states, finding that multinucleon interactions significantly increase widths and prevent the formation of bound states in most nuclei.

## Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive self-consistent calculation approach incorporating multinucleon interactions, showing these interactions prevent narrow $K^-$-nuclear states.

## Key findings

- Multinucleon interactions greatly increase $K^-$ widths.
- No narrow $K^-$-nuclear bound states found in most nuclei.
- Extended density dependence models do not support bound states.

## Abstract

We performed self-consistent calculations of $K^-$-nuclear quasi-bound states using a single-nucleon $K^-$ optical potential derived from chiral meson-baryon coupled-channel interaction models, supplemented by a phenomenological $K^-$ multinucleon potential introduced recently to achieve good fits to kaonic atom data [1]. Our calculations show that the effect of $K^-$ multinucleon interactions on $K^-$ widths in nuclei is decisive. The resulting widths are considerably larger than corresponding binding energies. Moreover, when the density dependence of the $K^-$-multinucleon interactions derived in the fits of kaonic atoms is extended to the nuclear interior, the only two models acceptable after imposing as additional constraint the single-nucleon fraction of $K^-$ absorption at rest do not yield any kaonic nuclear bound state in majority of considered nuclei.