Deeply bound levels in kaonic atoms

Using a microscopic antikaon-nucleus optical potential recently developed by Ramos and Oset (nucl-th/9906016, in print in Nuclear Physics A) from a chiral model, we calculate strong interaction shifts and widths for $K^-$ atoms. This purely theoretical potential gives an acceptable description of the measured data ($\chi^2/{\rm num.data}= 3.8$), though it turns out to be less attractive than what can be inferred from the existing kaon atomic data. We also use a modified potential, obtained by adding to the latter theoretical one a s-wave term which is fitted to known experimental kaonic data ($\chi^2/{\rm degree of freedom}= 1.6$), to predict deeply bound $K^-$ atomic levels, not detected y…