MesonicvsNonmesonic Hyperfragment Decay

Abstract

An attempt has been made to see whether reabsorption of pions, which would be produced inside a hyperfragment if the bound hyperon decayed as if it were free, might account for the striking decrease, with increasing hyperfragment size, of the number of hyperfragment decays in which a pion is actually observed. Optical-model calculations, as well as experimental yields for the analogous process of photopion production inside nuclei, indicate that much too few pions would be reabsorbed. Another model of hyperfragment decay, in which nucleons may influence the bound hyperon to decay without real pion emission, could be made to fit the data.