Accelerator neutrinos as a probe of in-medium hyperon potentials

Abstract

Charged-current (anti)neutrino interactions create Lambda and Sigma hyperons inside the nucleus, so the hyperons that reach a detector have crossed nuclear matter and carry the imprint of the in-medium potentials U_Y(rho) that also govern the appearance of hyperons in neutron stars. In the StrangeMC simulation of argon, the reconstructed Lambda yield and momentum and a kaon-vetoed Sigma+ tag respond to U_Lambda and U_Sigma at SBND and DUNE energies. A detector-level forecast, with the production cross sections, fluxes and efficiencies as nuisance parameters and the muon kinematics calibrating the production model, determines U_Lambda at rho* = 0.82 rho_0, independently of the low-density exponent of the potential, to 1.5 MeV statistically and +-31 MeV in total. The largest item, 18 MeV, is the convention by which the cascade applies the potential. The measurement is a check, with different systematics, of the hypernuclear constraint, +-3.3 MeV at rho*, for momentum-independent potentials; U_Sigma is not determined. In the relativistic mean-field equations of state GM1 and FSU2H, anchored to the hypernuclear and Sigma-atom depths, the maximum neutron-star mass depends on the Lambda NN repulsion, which these data do not constrain.

arXiv comment4 pages, 2 figures. v2: antineutrino quasi-elastic cross section corrected (sign of the V-A interference term); forecast with the production model profiled and the full systematic study of arXiv:2607.09273