Three- and four-nucleon absorption processes observed in the $K^-$-$^4$He reaction at rest

Abstract

Correlations of back-to-back coincident $Λd$ and $Λt$ pairs from the stopped $K^-$ reaction on $^4$He had been investigated, thereby $Λd$ and $Λt$ branches of non-mesonic three- and four-nucleon absorption processes of antikaon at rest were identified as well-separable processes, respectively. The branching ratio of the three-nucleon process, ($^4$He-$K^-$)$_{atomic} \rightarrow Λd "n"$, is estimated to be $(0.9 \pm 0.1 (stat) \pm 0.2 (syst)) \times 10^{-3}$ from the normalized $Λd$ spectrum in a $Λd n$ final state, while the fraction of the four-nucleon process, ($^4$He-$K^-$)$_{atomic} \rightarrow Λt$, is obtained to be $(3.1 \pm 0.4 (stat) \pm 0.5 (syst)) \times 10^{-4}$ per stopped $K^-$.

6 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Physics Letters B