$σ$ meson exchange effect on nonmesonic hypernuclear weak decay observables

Abstract

We analyze the influence of $σ$ meson exchange on the main nonmesonic hypernuclear weak decay observables: the total rate, $Γ_{NM}$, the neutron-to-proton branching ratio, $Γ_{n/p}$, and the proton asymmetry parameter, $a_Λ$. The $σ$ meson exchange is added to the standard strangeness-changing weak $ΛN\to NN$ transition potential, which includes the exchange of the complete pseudoscalar and vector mesons octet ($π$, $η$, $K$, $ρ$, $ω$, $K^*$). Using a shell model formalism, the $σ$ meson weak coupling constants are adjusted to reproduce the recent $Γ_{NM}$ and $Γ_{n/p}$ experimental data for $^5_ΛHe$. Numerical results for the remaining observables of $^5_ΛHe$ and all the observables of $^{12}_ΛC$ decays are presented. They clearly show that the addition of the $σ$ meson, in spite of improving some observables values, is not enough to reproduce simultaneously all the measurements, and the puzzle posed by the experimental data remains unexplained.