Production of cascade hypernuclei via the (K−,K+) reaction within a quark–meson coupling model

We study the production of bound hypernuclei and via the (K−,K+) reaction on 12C and 28Si targets, respectively, within a covariant effective Lagrangian model, employing Ξ bound state spinors derived from the latest quark–meson coupling model as well as Dirac single-particle wave functions. The K+Ξ− production vertex is described by excitation, propagation and decay of Λ and Σ resonance states in the initial collision of a K− meson with a target proton in the incident channel. The parameters of the resonance vertices are fixed by describing the available data on total and differential cross sections for the p(K−,K+)Ξ− reaction. We find that both the elementary and hypernuclear production cross sections are dominated by the contributions from the Λ(1520) intermediate resonant state. The 0° differential cross sections for the formation of simple s-state Ξ− particle–hole states peak at a beam momentum around 1.0 GeV/c, with a value in excess of 1 μb.