Hyperon--nucleon interactions at BESIII

Abstract

Hyperon--nucleon interactions provide essential information on the strange sector of baryon--baryon forces, with implications for hypernuclei, dense baryonic matter, and non-perturbative QCD. Direct experimental information, however, remains scarce because hyperons are short lived and intense conventional hyperon beams are difficult to produce. At BESIII, hyperons and antihyperons produced in charmonium decays can instead be used as incident particles, while the detector material serves as an effective fixed target. This approach has enabled a new program of hyperon--nucleon studies at an $e^+e^-$ collider. Representative results include the first study of $Ξ^{0}n\toΞ^-p$ using $Ξ^0$--nucleus scattering, measurements of elastic $Λp\toΛp$ and $\barΛp\to\barΛp$ scattering, and recent observations of $\barΛp$ annihilation into multi-meson final states. These measurements demonstrate that BESIII can operate as an effective hyperon--nucleon scattering facility and provide new experimental constraints on the poorly explored strange sector of baryon--baryon interactions.