Hyperons in nuclear matter from SU(3) chiral effective field theory

Abstract

Brueckner theory is used to investigate the properties of hyperons in nuclear matter. The hyperon-nucleon interaction is taken from chiral effective field theory at next-to-leading order with SU(3) symmetric low-energy constants. Furthermore, the underlying nucleon-nucleon interaction is also derived within chiral effective field theory. We present the single-particle potentials of Lambda and Sigma hyperons in symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter computed with the continuous choice for intermediate spectra. The results are in good agreement with the empirical information. In particular, our calculation gives a repulsive Sigma-nuclear potential and a weak Lambda-nuclear spin-orbit force.