English

Neutrino-induced hyperon final-state interactions as constraints on the in-medium hyperon potential

Nuclear Theory 2026-07-10 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena High Energy Physics - Experiment High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Hyperon single-particle potentials UY(ρ)U_Y(\rho) control propagation in nuclei and hyperon onset in dense matter, where they soften the neutron-star equation of state and reduce the maximum mass -- the ``hyperon puzzle''. We show that charged-current accelerator (anti)neutrino interactions on 40^{40}Ar, producing Λ\Lambda and Σ\Sigma inside the nucleus, can constrain these potentials. At SBND and DUNE energies, the trapped-Λ\Lambda fraction and escaping-hyperon momenta vary monotonically with UΛU_\Lambda and UΣU_\Sigma, with a kaon-vetoed FSI-Σ+\Sigma^+ tag adding sensitivity. Inserted in a GM1 relativistic mean-field equation of state at established hypernuclear/Σ\Sigma-atom depths, the same potentials give Mmax=1.94MM_{\rm max} = 1.94\,M_\odot and Λ1.4=1034\Lambda_{1.4}=1034, below the heaviest pulsars and above the GW170817 bound typical of GM1-class mean fields. A detector-level Fisher forecast yields δUΛ0.3\delta U_\Lambda \simeq 0.3\,MeV and δUΣ3\delta U_\Sigma \simeq 3-44\,MeV for fixed low-density exponent γ\gamma. Since hyperons are produced below saturation, UΛ(ρ0)U_\Lambda(\rho_0) and γ\gamma are 99.8\% anti-correlated; marginalising over γ\gamma degrades the anchor to δUΛ5.6\delta U_\Lambda \simeq 5.6\,MeV (1.31.3\,MeV with a ±0.2\pm 0.2 prior), while δUΣ\delta U_\Sigma is unchanged. For UΛU_\Lambda, comparable systematics arise from hyperon-nucleon final-state cross sections (5/+2-5/{+}2\,MeV) and the exit-shift/gradient transport prescription (6-6\,MeV). For UΣU_\Sigma, the same YNYN uncertainty biases the fit by O(150)\mathcal{O}(150)\,MeV; removing the Σ+\Sigma^+ tag does not cure this, because the Λ\Lambda momentum spectrum carries most UΣU_\Sigma information and is itself YNYN-sensitive. The low-density UΛU_\Lambda anchor is a robust handle, at several-MeV rather than sub-MeV precision. A joint fit with terrestrial and heavy-ion priors gives Mmax=2.210.15+0.04M_{\rm max} = 2.21^{+0.04}_{-0.15}\,\,Msun, set mainly by the external cΛc_\Lambda prior.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.09273,
  title  = {Neutrino-induced hyperon final-state interactions as constraints on the in-medium hyperon potential},
  author = {Jaroslaw Nowak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.09273},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

18 pages, 17 figures