dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaRelativistic Treatment of Hypernuclear Decay
| Authors | L. Zhou, J. Piekarewicz |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | nucl-th/9902034 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/nucl-th/9902034 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevC.60.024306 |
| Journal | Phys.Rev.C60:024306,1999 |
Abstract
We compute for the first time the decay width of lambda-hypernuclei in a relativistic mean-field approximation to the Walecka model. Due to the small mass difference between the lambda-hyperon and its decay products---a nucleon and a pion---the mesonic component of the decay is strongly Pauli blocked in the nuclear medium. Thus, the in-medium decay becomes dominated by the non-mesonic, or two-body, component of the decay. For this mode, the lambda-hyperon decays into a nucleon and a spacelike nuclear excitation. In this work we concentrate exclusively on the pion-like modes. By relying on the analytic structure of the nucleon and pion propagators, we express the non-mesonic component of the decay in terms of the spin-longitudinal response function. This response has been constrained from precise quasielastic (p,n) measurements done at LAMPF. We compute the spin-longitudinal response in a relativistic random-phase-approximation model that reproduces accurately the quasielastic data. By doing so, we obtain hypernuclear decay widths that are considerably smaller---by factors of two or three---relative to existing nonrelativistic calculations.
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"abstract": "We compute for the first time the decay width of lambda-hypernuclei in a\nrelativistic mean-field approximation to the Walecka model. Due to the small\nmass difference between the lambda-hyperon and its decay products---a nucleon\nand a pion---the mesonic component of the decay is strongly Pauli blocked in\nthe nuclear medium. Thus, the in-medium decay becomes dominated by the\nnon-mesonic, or two-body, component of the decay. For this mode, the\nlambda-hyperon decays into a nucleon and a spacelike nuclear excitation. In\nthis work we concentrate exclusively on the pion-like modes. By relying on the\nanalytic structure of the nucleon and pion propagators, we express the\nnon-mesonic component of the decay in terms of the spin-longitudinal response\nfunction. This response has been constrained from precise quasielastic (p,n)\nmeasurements done at LAMPF. We compute the spin-longitudinal response in a\nrelativistic random-phase-approximation model that reproduces accurately the\nquasielastic data. By doing so, we obtain hypernuclear decay widths that are\nconsiderably smaller---by factors of two or three---relative to existing\nnonrelativistic calculations.",
"arxiv_id": "nucl-th/9902034",
"authors": [
"L. Zhou",
"J. Piekarewicz"
],
"categories": [
"nucl-th"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevC.60.024306",
"journal_ref": "Phys.Rev.C60:024306,1999",
"title": "Relativistic Treatment of Hypernuclear Decay",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/nucl-th/9902034"
},
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