Antihyperon potentials in nuclei via exclusive antiproton–nucleus reactions

Abstract

The exclusive production of hyperon–antihyperon pairs close to their production threshold in p‾-nucleus collisions offers a unique and hitherto unexplored opportunity to elucidate the behavior of antihyperons in nuclei. For the first time we analyze these reactions in a microscopic transport model using the Gießen Boltzmann–Uehling–Uhlenbeck transport model. The calculation takes the delicate interplay between the strong absorption of antihyperons, their rescattering and mean field deflection as well as the Fermi motion of the struck nucleon into account. We find a substantial sensitivity of transverse momentum correlations of coincident Λ‾Λ-pairs to the assumed depth of the Λ‾-potential. Because of the high cross section for this process and the simplicity of the experimental method our results are highly relevant for future activities at the international Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR).