Variational study of s-shell lambda hypernuclear system

Abstract

Theoretical study on hypernuclear systems is important to know the nature of hyperon-nucleon and hyperon-hyperon interaction as only hypernuclear systems give the scope of knowing these interactions. A hypernucleus, in addition to the nucleons contains at least one hyperon which is a strange particle composed of quarks. A hypernucleus is produced mostly in heavy ion collisions and it undergoes weak decay. Experimental detection of hypernuclear events are rare and this makes the study of hypernuclear physics more challenging. Hypernuclear physics has a close association with astrophysics as hyperon-nucleon and hyperon-hyperon interactions are found to play important role in the interiors of neutron stars. The core of neutron stars contains strange quark matter and therefore, study of hyperon involved potentials are essential for the determination of the composition of neutron star matter. But, there is a scarcity of data from hyperon-nucleon scattering experiments. Also, since it is impossibe to have hyperon-hyperon scattering experiments, the direct determination of the baryon-baryon interaction strength is extremely difficult. Therefore theoretical models play important role in unfolding the mysteries of hyperon-nucleon and hyperon-hyperon interaction. In this study, binding energies of hypernuclear systems calculated using different two-body lambda-nucleon and three-body lambda-nucleon-nucleon interactions have been analysed. Also effect of lambda-lambda potential on the binding energy of hypernuclear system have been analysed. In this few-body study, we have employed Variational Monte Carlo technique for calculation of the binding energies of different hyperclear systems.