Some aspects of the nuclear capture of hyperons and K-mesons

Abstract

Some predictions are made concerning the characteristics of the interactions produced by the nuclear capture of K^¯- and Y^¯-particles. It is assumed that the capture reaction is the inverse of the « associated production mechanism ». A comparison is made between these predictions and the experimental data. The significant conclusions are: (i) the capture process sometimes involves two or more nucleons rather than a single nucleon; (ii) in view of the possible existence of Σ⁰-particles and their rapid transformation to Λ⁰-particles, the observation of Λ⁰-particles as end products of a capture process does not necessarily indicate that they were produced in the initial reaction; (iii) there appears to be an absence of μ-mesons of ~120 MeV; this might indicate the production of a Σ⁰-particle instead of a Λ⁰-particle in the initial reaction or that the capture involves two or more nucleons; (iv) the available observations on capture stars are consistent with the general features of the theory of Gell-Mann and Pais.