Observation of the (Λ)(7)He hypernucleus by the (e, e'K+) reaction

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Jan 4;110(1):012502. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.012502. Epub 2013 Jan 2.

Abstract

An experiment with a newly developed high-resolution kaon spectrometer and a scattered electron spectrometer with a novel configuration was performed in Hall C at Jefferson Lab. The ground state of a neutron-rich hypernucleus, (Λ)(7)He, was observed for the first time with the (e, e'K+) reaction with an energy resolution of ~0.6 MeV. This resolution is the best reported to date for hypernuclear reaction spectroscopy. The (Λ)(7)He binding energy supplies the last missing information of the A = 7, T = 1 hypernuclear isotriplet, providing a new input for the charge symmetry breaking effect of the ΛN potential.