High-precision spectroscopy of $$\Lambda $$ hypernuclei with electron and meson beams
High-precision spectroscopy of $$\Lambda $$ hypernuclei provides essential information on the $$\Lambda N$$ interaction and on the structure of strange nuclear many-body systems. It is also closely related to current topics in few-body physics and nuclear astrophysics, including charge-symmetry breaking in $$\Lambda $$ hypernuclei, the hypertriton puzzle, possible neutron-rich light hypernuclear systems, and the hyperon puzzle in neutron stars. In this article, I review ongoing and planned spectroscopic studies of $$\Lambda $$ hypernuclei with complementary probes at JLab, MAMI, and J-PARC. Electron-induced reactions such as $$(e,e'K^+)$$ offer excellent absolute energy calibration and high-resolution spectroscopy for light-to-heavy hypernuclei. Decay-pion spectroscopy of electroproduced hypernuclei provides a powerful method for precise binding-energy studies of light systems, particularly the hypertriton. At J-PARC, the planned High-Intensity, High-Resolution beamline will enable high-intensity, high-resolution $$(\pi ^+,K^+)$$ spectroscopy over a wide mass range and open a path toward a hypernuclear factory. The complementarity of these approaches will play a key role in establishing a comprehensive and precise picture of $$\Lambda $$ hypernuclear structure from few-body systems to heavy hypernuclei.
Authors
- S N Nakamura
Institutions
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Few-Body Systems
- Published
- 2026-04-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00601-026-02044-9
- Primary Topic
- Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science London
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- University of Tokyo
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility