Towards hypernuclei from nuclear lattice effective field theory

Abstract

Understanding the strong interactions within baryonic systems beyond the up and down quark sector is pivotal for a comprehensive description of nuclear forces. This study explores the interactions involving hyperons, particularly the \(\varLambda \) particle, within the framework of nuclear lattice effective field theory (NLEFT). By incorporating \(\varLambda \) hyperons into the NLEFT framework, we extend our investigation into the \(S = -1\) sector, allowing us to probe the third dimension of the nuclear chart. We calculate the \(\varLambda \) separation energies (\(B_{\varLambda }\)) of hypernuclei up to the medium-mass region, providing valuable insights into hyperon–nucleon (YN) and hyperon–nucleon–nucleon (YNN) interactions. Our calculations employ high-fidelity chiral interactions at N\( ^3\)LO for nucleons and extend it to \(\varLambda \) hyperons with leading-order S-wave YN interactions as well as YNN forces constrained only by the \(A=4,5\) systems. Our results contribute to a deeper understanding of the SU(3) symmetry breaking and establish a foundation for future improvements in hypernuclear calculations.