Pion-induced production of $\Lambda (1520)$ hyperons on nuclei near threshold

Abstract

We study the pion-induced inclusive $\Lambda (1520)$ hyperon production from nuclei near threshold within a nuclear spectral function approach accounting for incoherent primary ${\pi }^{-}$ meson--proton ${\pi }^{-}p\to K^0\Lambda (1520)$ production processes. We calculate the absolute differential and total cross sections for the production of $\Lambda (1520)$ hyperons off carbon and tungsten nuclei at laboratory angles of 0${}^{\circ }$--10${}^{\circ }$, 10${}^{\circ }$--45${}^{\circ }$ and 45${}^{\circ }$--85${}^{\circ }$ by ${\pi }^{-}$ mesons with momentum of 1.7 GeV/c as well as their relative (transparency ratio) differential and integral yields from these nuclei within four scenarios for their total in-medium width. We demonstrate that these absolute observables, contrary to the relative ones, reveal some sensitivity to the $\Lambda (1520)$ in-medium width. Therefore, their measurement in a dedicated experiment at the GSI pion beam facility will allow to shed light on this width.

Comments: 14 pages