Density Dependence in - Atoms and Implications for Hypernuclei

Abstract

The measured strong-interaction energy shifts, widths and yields of Σ− atomic levels over the periodic table are fitted by using a density dependent Σ nucleus optical potential VoptΣ. The best fit solutions for VoptΣ depart considerably from a standard teffρ(r) form in that the real part tends to flip sign, e. g. from attraction for Re VoptΣ outside the nucleus to repulsion inside. However, the quality of the atomic data is too poor to determine unambiguously VoptΣ inside the nucleus. For such density dependent potentials, single-particle hypernuclear states are likely to be unbound.