Implications of Recent Data on Non-mesonic Decay of Light Lambda-hypernuclei

Abstract

We analyze the recent data on the non-mesonic decays of light Lambda-hypernuclei up to ^12_Lambda C using the phenomenological model of Block and Dalitz. Fitting the spin-isospin dependent Lambda N -> NN reaction rates to six data points, we predict the remaining data in reasonable consistency. We find that despite the short-range nature of the Lambda N -> NN interaction, the non-mesonic decay of p-shell hypernuclei seems to be strongly induced by the p-shell neutrons. Also, the recent data indicate that the Delta I = 1/2 rule, well proved at the hadronic level, may not be sacred in the nuclear medium and the Delta I = 3/2 interactions seem to be needed to describe the non-mesonic decays of Lambda-hypernuclei.