K+-nucleus elastic scattering revisited from the perspective of partial restoration of chiral symmetry

Abstract

The K+ meson properties in the nuclear medium are investigated by considering thewavefunction renormalization as a first step to reveal the in-medium properties of the K+ meson in the context of partial restoration of chiral symmetry. The K+N elastic scattering amplitude is constructed using chiral perturbation theory up to the next-to-leading order. Using the constructed amplitude, we calculate the wavefunction renormalization in the Thomas-Fermi approximation. We obtain a good description of the K+N elastic scattering amplitude. The obtained wavefunction renormalization factor suggests a 2 to 6%enhancement of the K+N interaction at the saturation density.We conclude that wavefunction renormalization could be one of the important medium effects for the K+ meson.