Neutron and proton energy spectra from the non-mesonic weak decays of Λ 5He and Λ 12C

S. Okada, S. Ajimura, K. Aoki, A. Banu, H. C. Bhang, T. Fukuda, O. Hashimoto, J. I. Hwang, S. Kameoka, B. H. Kang, E. H. Kim, J. H. Kim, M. J. Kim, T. Maruta, Y. Miura, Y. Miyake, T. Nagae, M. Nakamura, S. N. Nakamura, H. NoumiY. Okayasu, H. Outa, H. Park, P. K. Saha, Y. Sato, M. Sekimoto, T. Takahashi, H. Tamura, K. Tanida, A. Toyoda, K. Tsukada, T. Watanabe, H. J. Yim

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Abstract

We have simultaneously measured the energy spectra of neutrons and protons emitted in the non-mesonic weak decays of Λ 5He and Λ 12C hypernuclei produced via the (π +, K +) reaction with much higher statistics than those of previous experiments. The neutron-to-proton yield ratios for both hypernuclei at a high energy threshold (60 MeV) were approximately equal to two, which suggests that the ratio of the neutron- and proton-induced decay channels, Γ n(Λn→nn)/Γ p(Λp→np), is about 0.5. In the neutron energy spectra, we found that the yield of the low-energy component is unexpectedly large, even for Λ 5He.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)249-256
Number of pages8
JournalPhysics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics
Volume597
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 16 Sep 2004

Keywords

  • Non-mesonic weak decay
  • Nucleon energy spectrum
  • Λ hypernuclei

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