2025/02/12 by Arpita Mondal, Mondal, Arpita, Amruta Mishra +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th) #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.08320
openalex publication_date 2025/02/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The properties (masses and decay widths) of the ϕ meson are investigated in nuclear matter from the ϕ meson self-energy, using the tree-level ϕKK Lagrangian, and, incorporating in-medium masses of (anti)kaons calculated within the quark meson coupling (QMC) model. These mass shifts and decay widths are incorporated in the Breit-Wigner spectral function of the ϕ meson to calculate the production cross-section of ϕ in asymmetric nuclear matter. Considerable modifications to the production cross-section are observed at normal nuclear matter density, driven by the in-medium mass reduction and the increase in the decay width of ϕ meson. The potential experienced by ϕ meson in nuclear matter is used to study the possibility of formation of the ϕ mesic bound state with atomic nuclei. We explore the potential formation of ϕ-mesic bound states in \rm4He, \rm12C, \rm16O, \rm40Ca, \rm90Zr, \rm197Au and \rm208Pb nuclei by investigating their binding energies and absorption widths based on the corresponding ϕ-nucleus potentials. Our study shows shallow bound states with the light nuclei and deeply bound states in heavy nuclei. Among the investigated nuclei, a particularly distinct signal for a ϕ-mesic bound state is identified in \rm16O, suggesting its potential experimental observability. The work provides valuable insights into ϕ meson interactions in infinite nuclear matter and the potential formation of exotic ϕ-mesic nuclear states, offering promising probes for strongly interacting matter in the upcoming experiments at J-PARC, JLab, and \rmPANDA@FAIR physics program.