Kaonic atoms and in-medium K−N amplitudes II: Interplay between theory and phenomenology

A microscopic kaonic-atom optical potential is constructed, using the Ikeda–Hyodo–Weise NLO chiral K−N subthreshold scattering amplitudes constrained by the kaonic hydrogen SIDDHARTA measurement, and incorporating Pauli correlations within the Waas–Rho–Weise generalization of the Ericson–Ericson multiple-scattering approach. Good fits to kaonic atom data over the entire periodic table require additionally sizable K−NN-motivated absorptive and dispersive phenomenological terms, in agreement with our former analysis based on a post-SIDDHARTA in-medium chirally-inspired NLO separable model by Cieplý and Smejkal. Such terms are included by introducing a phenomenological potential and coupling it self-consistently to . Properties of resulting kaonic atom potentials are discussed with special attention paid to the role of K−-nuclear absorption and to the extraction of density-dependent amplitudes representing K− multi-nucleon processes.