Maximal isospin few-body systems of nucleons and $\Xi$ hyperons

Abstract

By using local central Yukawa-type interactions that reproduce the low-energy parameters of the latest updates of the Nijmegen ESC08c potentials we show that the $N\Xi$, $NN\Xi$, $N\Xi\Xi$ and $NN\Xi\Xi$ systems with maximal isospin are bound. Since in these states the strong decay $N\Xi\to\Lambda\Lambda$ is forbidden by isospin conservation, these strange few-body systems will be stable under the strong interaction. These results may suggest that other states with different number of $N$'s and $\Xi$'s in the maximal isospin channel could also be bound.