From kaonic atoms to kaonic nuclei: A search for antikaon-mediated bound nuclear systems

An overview of the properties of exotic hydrogen atoms made of pions and kaons are presented, using high precision experiments unrevealing the nature of strong interaction physics at low energy. A new field which contributes to the understanding of the origin of the large hadron mass is the study of the mass modification in a nuclear medium. Antikaon mediated bound nuclear systems would be an ideal tool, if they exist, to look for chiral restoration at high density and zero temperature or even more exotic to look for phase transitions.