Abstract:
We investigate the weak kaon-nucleon (NNK) S-wave and P-wave interactions using heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The leading one-loop SU(3) breaking contributions to the ppK, pnK, and nnK couplings are computed. We find that they suppress all NNK amplitudes by 30% to 50%. The ratio of neutron-induced to proton-induced hypernuclear decay widths is sensitive to such reductions. It has been argued that the discrepancy between the predicted and observed P-wave amplitudes in Δs = 1 hyperon decay results from an accidental cancellation between tree-level amplitudes, and is not a fundamental problem for chiral perturbation theory. Agreement between experimentally determined NNK P-wave amplitudes and our estimates would support this explanation.
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