Probing the size and binding energy of the hypertriton in heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The hypertriton is predicted to have a small binding energy (a weighted average of about 150 keV), consistent with a large matter radius (~ 10 fm), larger than the historical 11Li halo discovered more than 35 years ago. But the reported experimental values of the binding energy of the hypertriton range from 70 to 400 keV. In this work I discuss the electromagnetic response and interaction radius of the hypertriton and how high energy heavy ion collisions (~ 1 - 2 GeV/nucleon) can help achieving a higher accuracy for the determination of its size and binding energy.