An introduction to mesic nuclei

Abstract

There is much speculation and a modest amount of evidence that certain mesons might form quasi-bound states with nuclei to produce really exotic states of matter. For this to be a practical possibility, the interaction between the meson and nucleons at low energies must be strong and attractive and the production rates "healthy". The conditions for this are surveyed for the light mesons. How this might lead to quasi-bound states is then discussed in a few typical cases.