Traces of Theta^+ pentaquark in K^+ nucleus dynamics

Abstract

Long-standing anomalies in K^+ nucleus integral cross sections could be resolved by extending the impulse-approximation t*rho optical-potential framework to incorporate K^+ absorption on pairs of nucleons. Substantially improved fits to the data at p(lab)=500-700 MeV/c are obtained. An upper bound of 3.5 mb for the absorption cross section of K^+ per nucleon is derived. We conjecture that the underlying microscopic absorption process is K^+ n N --> Theta^+ N, where Theta^+(1540) is the newly discovered exotic Y=2, I=0, Z=1 pentaquark baryon, and estimate that the cross section for K^+ d --> Theta^+ p is a fraction of millibarn. Comments are made on Theta^+ production reactions on nuclei.

4 double-column pages, 1 figure, extended results and discussion, final form accepted for publication in PRL

References in corpus (4)

• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (in "The Review of Particle Properties" 2004)
• New results on the limit for the width of the exotic Theta^+ resonance
• The pentaquark in K-plus-d total cross section data
• Analysis of Theta^+ production in K^+Xe collisions

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• The Winfree model with heterogeneous phase-response curves: Analytical results
• Search for Higher Flavor Multiplets in Partial Wave Analyses
• MESON2016 -- Concluding Remarks
• Strange Exotic States and Compact Stars
• $K^{+}$-nucleus potentials from $K^{+}$-nucleon amplitudes
• Microscopic analysis of K^+-nucleus elastic scattering based on K^+N phase shifts
• $K^{+}$-nucleus elastic scattering revisited from perspective of partial restoration of chiral symmetry