The PHENIX Collaboration

Mesonic and Non-Mesonic Weak Decay of Hypernuclei with FINUDA

Abstract The FINUDA experiment performed a systematic study of both mesonic and non-mesonic weak decay of p - shell Λ-hypernuclei. Recent results on the mesonic decay rates and the non-mesonic decay ratios are illustrated and briefly discussed.

New results on mesonic weak decay of p-shell Lambda-hypernuclei

The FINUDA experiment performed a systematic study of the charged mesonic weak decay channel of $p$-shell $\Lambda$-hypernuclei. Negatively charged pion spectra from mesonic decay were measured with magnetic analysis for the first time for ${^{7}_{\Lambda}Li}$, ${^{9}_{\Lambda}Be}$, ${^{11}_{\Lambda}B}$ and ${^{15}_{\Lambda}N}$. The shape of the $\pi^{-}$ spectra was interpreted through a comparison with pion distorted wave calculations that take into account the structure of both hypernucleus and daughter nucleus. Branching ratios $\Gamma_{\pi^{-}}/\Gamma_{tot}$ were derived from the measured spectra and converted to $\pi^{-}$ decay rates $\Gamma_{\pi^{-}}$ by means of known or extrapolate…