Two nucleon induced hypernuclear weak decay within a nuclear matter formalism

Abstract

The non-mesonic two-nucleon induced hypernuclear decay is studied using a non-relativistic nuclear matter formalism, which is supplemented with the local density approximation (LDA) to evaluate the 12ΛC decay width. Three possible decay mechanisms: Γ(Λnn→nnn), Γ(Λnp→nnp) and Γ(Λpp→npp), are considered. The full one-meson-exchange model (OMEM), which includes the complete pseudo-scalar and vector meson octets (π,η,K,ρ,ω,K∗), is employed for the transition potential. The strong residual interaction, which accounts for the ground state correlations, is modeled by a Bonn potential. Our results show that the two-nucleon induced decay is ∼24% of the total non-mesonic decay width. We also confirm that this decay is dominated by the process Λnp→nnp, even though the two other decay channels should not be neglected.