Interaction of antiprotons with nuclei

Abstract

We performed fully self-consistent calculations of p¯-nuclear bound states using a complex p¯-nucleus potential accounting for p¯-atom data. While the real part of the potential is constructed within the relativistic mean-field (RMF) model, the p¯ annihilation in the nuclear medium is described by a phenomenological optical potential. We confirm large polarization effects of the nuclear core caused by the presence of the antiproton. The p¯ annihilation is treated dynamically, taking into account explicitly the reduced phase space for annihilation from deeply bound states as well as the compressed nuclear density due to the antiproton. The energy available for the products of p¯ annihilation in the nuclear medium is evaluated self-consistently, considering the additional energy shift due to transformation from the p¯N system to p¯-nucleus system. Corresponding p¯ widths in the medium are significantly suppressed, however, they still remain considerable for the p¯ potential consistent with experimental data.