Spectroscopy of electro- and photo-productions of hypernuclei

Abstract

Recently hypernuclear electroproduction experiments have been successfully carried out at the Thomas Jefferson Laboratory, providing high-resolution spectroscopic data. This article discusses several facets inherent to this reaction process: First, numerous theoretical attempts in describing the elementary kaon photoproduction are summarized so as to choose appropriate elementary amplitudes to be used for hypernuclear production estimates. The reaction process is characterized by both the sizable momentum transfer and the spin-flip dominace involved in the transition operator. The DWIA theoretical excitation spectra of producing p-shell hypernucli are discussed together with the experimental ones obtained recently. Encouraged with the successful theory-experiment comparison, the calculational framework has been applied beyond p-shell to typical medium-heavy hypernuclear production. The hypernuclear photo-production spectra predicted with the 19F, 28Si, and 40Catargets suggest that the unique characters of the electroproduction are more clearly appeared in the medium-mass region, providing interesting opportunities of spectroscopic study beyond p-shell.