Work

Isotone Chain Study of p –Atom Spectroscopy and Strong Spin–Orbit Splittings

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Antiprotonic atoms have served as a pivotal tool for investigating the properties of baryon–baryon interactions, including their spin dependence. Examining the spin–orbit splittings induced by their strong interactions also could help clarify the nature of the $\bar{p}$–nucleus interactions and their fraction mediated by scalar and vector mesons. Although the strong spin–orbit splittings for a certain nucleus have been observed experimentally, thorough theoretical investigations have not yet been conducted. In this study, theoretical calculations based on the Dirac equation are systematically performed for nuclei along several isotone “chains.” As a result, it is found that the magnitude of the strong spin–orbit splittings exhibits a significant dependence not only on the corresponding level shifts and widths almost linearly, but also on whether the optical potential enters as a vector or scalar potential. These results are expected to provide deeper insights into $\bar{p}$–nucleus interactions, and by extension baryon–baryon interactions, as well as into the properties of the mesons that mediate them.

Source: Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics

DOI: 10.1093/ptep/ptag084

Authors: Kenta Yoshimura, Shunsuke Yasunaga, Daisuke Jido, Hiroyuki Fujioka

Institution: Institute of Science Tokyo

Language: English

Topic: Nuclear physics research studies

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $979

Funder: Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics