Threshold suppression of Lambda spin-orbit splitting

Abstract

New experimental data on medium to heavy single Lambda hypernuclei revealed a much larger spin-orbit splitting than observed in older measurements of light hypernuclei. Taking into account particle threshold effects and the density-dependence of in-medium coupling constants the apparent suppression of spin-orbit strength in light hypernuclei as well as the spin-orbit structure observed in medium to heavy nuclei are explained in a unified manner within the density dependent relativistic hadron field theory. It is concluded that the most valuable information on the Lambda spin-orbit dynamics in finite nuclei has to be extracted from medium to heavy mass nuclei.