On the widths and binding energies of $K^-$ nuclear states and the role of $K^-$ multi-nucleon interactions

Abstract: We report on our recent self-consistent calculations of $K^-$ nuclear quasi-bound states using $K^-$ optical potentials derived from chirally motivated meson-baryon coupled channels models [1,2]. The $K^-$ single-nucleon potentials were supplemented by a phenomenological $K^-$ multi-nucleon interaction term introduced to achieve good fits to $K^-$ atom data. We demonstrate a substantial impact of the $K^-$ multi-nucleon absorption on the widths of $K^-$ nuclear states. If such states ever exist in nuclear many-body systems, their widths are excessively large to allow observation.