Femtoscopic correlations and the $\Lambda_c N$ interaction

Abstract

We study the prospects for deducing constraints on the interaction of charmed baryons with nucleons from measurements of two-particle momentum correlation functions for $\Lambda_c p$. The correlation functions are calculated for $\Lambda_c N$ and $\Sigma_c N$ interactions that have been extrapolated from lattice QCD simulations at unphysical masses of $m_\pi=410-570$ MeV to the physical point using chiral effective field theory as guideline. In addition, we consider phenomenological $Y_c N$ models from the literature to explore the sensitivity of the results to the properties of the interaction in detail. We find that a measurement of the $\Lambda_c p$ correlation functions could indeed allow one to discriminate between strongly attractive $\Lambda_c N$ forces, as predicted by some phenomenological models, and a weakly attractive interaction as suggested by the presently available lattice simulations.