Open problems and future prospects for hypernuclear physics

Abstract

We appraise the current status of our knowledge of hypernuclear structure physics, and emphasize the unsolved problems. The prospects for significant advances in high resolution hypernuclear spectroscopy with CW electron beams at CEBAF or intense pion beams at the proposed PILAC facility at LAMPF are discussed. These facilities could greatly extend our understanding of strangeness S = −1 hypernuclear systems. For S = −2 systems, new events have been seen in a ( K −, K +) hybrid counter-emulsion experiment at KEK in Japan. We give a theoretical interpretation of one of these events, as well as some further possibilities for the exploration of λλ hypernuclear spectroscopy via Ξ −-atoms. We mention some possible enhancements of ( K −, K +) or ( K -, K 0) cross sections to discrete states, due to ΞN− λλ configuration mixing in a shell model description of S = −2 hypernuclei. Finally, we explore the possibilities for producing multi-strange nuclei or droplets of strange quark matter (“strangelets”) in relativistic heavy ion collisions.