Mesonic Decay of Charm Hypernuclei Λ_c⁺

Instituto de Física Teórica, Universidade Estadual Paulista Rua Dr. Bento Teobaldo Ferraz, 271 - Bloco II, 01140-070 São Paulo, SP, Brazil

^a e-mail: sabyaphy@ift.unesp.br
^b e-mail: eduardo@ift.unesp.br
^c e-mail: gkrein@ift.unesp.br

Published online: 25 March 2016

Abstract

Λ_c⁺ hypernuclei are expected to have binding energies and other properties similar to those of strange hypernuclei in view of the similarity between the quark structures of the strange and charmed hyperons, namely Λ(uds) and Λ_c⁺(udc). One striking difference however occurs in their mesonic decays, as there is almost no Pauli blocking in the nucleonic decay of a charm hypernucleus because the final-state nucleons leave the nucleus at high energies. The nuclear medium nevertheless affects the mesonic decays of charm hypernucleus because the nuclear mean fields modify the masses of the charm hyperon. In the present communication we present results of a first investigation of the effects of finite baryon density on different weak mesonic decay channels of the Λ_c⁺ baryon. We found a non-negligible reduction of the decay widths as compared to their vacuum values.