Distillation of scalar exchange by coherent hypernucleus production in antiproton-nucleus collisions

The total and angular differential cross sections of the coherent process p¯+AZ→ΛA(Z−1)+Λ¯ are evaluated at the beam momenta 1.5÷20GeV/c within the meson exchange model with bound proton and Λ-hyperon wave functions. It is shown that the shape of the beam momentum dependence of the hypernucleus production cross sections with various discrete Λ states is strongly sensitive to the presence of the scalar κ-meson exchange in the p¯p→Λ¯Λ amplitude. This can be used as a clean test of the exchange by scalar πK correlation in coherent p¯A reactions.