Production of $\Lambda_c^+$ hypernuclei in antiproton - nucleus collisions

Abstract

We investigate the production of charm-baryon hypernucleus $^{16}_{\Lambda_c^+}$O in the antiproton - $^{16}$O collisions within a fully covariant model that is based on an effective Lagrangian approach. The explicit ${\bar \Lambda}_c^ - \Lambda_c^+$ production vertex is described by the $t$-channel $D^0$ and $D^{*0}$ meson-exchanges in the initial collision of the incident antiproton with one of the protons of the target nucleus. The $\Lambda_c^+$ bound state spinors as well as the self-energies of the exchanged mesons employed in our calculations are derived from the quark-meson coupling model. The parameters of various vertices are taken to be the same as those used in our previous study of the elementary ${\bar p} + p \to {\bar \Lambda}_c^- + \Lambda_c^+$ reaction. We find that for antiproton beam momenta of interest to the ${\bar P}ANDA$ experiment, the 0$^\circ$ differential cross sections for the formation of $^{16}_{\Lambda_c^+}$O hypernuclear states with simple particle-hole configurations, have magnitudes in the range of a few $\mu$b/sr.