Eur. Phys. J. A (2016) 52: 309
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2016-16309-5

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Momentum distribution of N^* in nuclei

Departamento de Fisica, Universidad de los Andes, Cra 1E, 18A-10, Bogotá, Colombia

^* e-mail: nkelkar@uniandes.edu.co

Received: 27 June 2016
Accepted: 9 September 2016
Published online: 13 October 2016

Abstract

Due to its dominance in the low-energy eta-nucleon interaction, the S11 N ^*(1535) resonance enters as an important ingredient in the analyses of experiments aimed at finding evidence for the existence of eta-mesic nuclei. The static properties of the resonance get modified inside the nucleus and its momentum distribution is used in deciding these properties as well as the kinematics in the analyses. Here we show that given the possibility for the existence of an N ^*-³He quasibound state, the relative momentum distribution of an N ^* and ³He inside such a ⁴He is narrower than that of neutron-³He in ⁴He. Results for the N ^*-²⁴Mg system are also presented. The present exploratory work could be useful in motivating searches of exotic N ^*-nucleus quasibound states as well as in performing analyses of eta-meson production data.