Binding of hypernuclei in the latest quark–meson coupling model

The most recent development of the quark–meson coupling (QMC) model, in which the effect of the mean scalar field in-medium on the hyperfine interaction is also included self-consistently, is used to compute the properties of hypernuclei. The calculations for Λ and Ξ hypernuclei are of comparable quality to earlier QMC results without the additional parameter needed there. Even more significantly, the additional repulsion associated with the increased hyperfine interaction in-medium completely changes the predictions for Σ hypernuclei. Whereas in the earlier work they were bound by an amount similar to Λ hypernuclei, here they are unbound, in qualitative agreement with the experimental absence of such states. The equivalent non-relativistic potential felt by the Σ is repulsive inside the nuclear interior and weakly attractive in the nuclear surface, as suggested by the analysis of Σ-atoms.