Second Class Currents, Axial Mass and Nuclear Effects in Hyperon Production

Abstract

We study the properties of the Cabibbo suppressed quasielastic production of $\Lambda$ and $\Sigma$ hyperons in antineutrino interactions with nuclei, including the effects of modified form factor axial mass, the second class current and SU(3) flavour violations. The hyperon and nucleon are subjected to the nuclear potential and the outgoing hyperon can undergo final state interactions. The hyperon potential has a significant effect on their production through absorption. We predict a significant enhancement of $\Lambda$ production compared with other hyperon production channels through $\Sigma \to \Lambda$ conversions. We produce predictions for several experiments by combining realistic neutrino energy distributions with suitable nuclear targets.