Transitions of two baryons to the H dibaryon in nuclei

Abstract

We calculate the suppression in the rate at which two baryons in a nucleus (viz., nucleons or $\Lambda$'s) convert to an H dibaryon, using an Isgur-Karl wavefunction for quarks in the baryons and H, and a Bethe-Goldstone wavefunction for the baryons in the nucleus. If $r_H \lsi 1/3~ r_N$, we find $τ_{A_{ΛΛ}\to A'_H}\gsi τ_Λ$ and the observation of $\Lambda$ decays from double-$\Lambda$ hypernuclei does not exclude the existence of the H. If $m_H<2m_p$, nuclei are unstable but have very long lifetimes. For reasonable values of $r_H$ and the nuclear wavefunction, the lifetime can be long enough to evade anticipated SuperK limits $τ_{A_{NN}\to A'_H}\gsi {\rm few} 10^{29}$ yr, or short enough to be observed. An analysis of SuperK data to look for this possibility should be undertaken.

7 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Non-binding of Flavor-Singlet Hadrons to Nuclei
• Masses of Flavor Singlet Hybrid Baryons

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Non-binding of Flavor-Singlet Hadrons to Nuclei
• Flavor-singlet hybrid baryons may already have been discovered