$\phi$ meson in nuclear matter and nuclei

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the properties of the $3$ meson change in nuclear matter, revealing a slight mass decrease and significant width increase, and predicts possible bound states with nuclei.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation of $3$ meson mass shifts, decay width enhancements, and bound state energies in nuclei using an effective Lagrangian and optical potential approach.

Findings

$3$ mass decreases by a few percent at nuclear saturation density.

Decay width of $3$ increases by an order of magnitude in nuclear matter.

Predicted $3$-nucleus bound states with sizable absorption widths.

Abstract

The mass and decay width of the $\phi$ meson in cold nuclear matter are computed in an effective Lagrangian approach, with the medium dependence of these properties obtained by evaluating kaon-antikaon loop contributions to the $\phi$ self-energy. At normal nuclear matter density, we find a downward shift of the $\phi$ mass by a few percent, while the decay width is enhanced by an order of magnitude. We also present $\phi$--nucleus bound state energies and absorption widths for some selected nuclei, using complex optical potentials obtained in the local density approximation. Our results suggest that the $\phi$ should form bound states with all the nuclei considered. However, the identification of the signal for these predicted bound states will need careful investigation because of their sizable absorption widths.