K− and p̄ deeply bound atomic states Original Research Article

The strongly absorptive optical potentials Vopt which have been deduced from the strong-interaction level shifts and widths in X-ray spectra of K− and View the MathML source atoms produce effective repulsion leading to substantial suppression of the atomic wave functions within the nucleus. The width of atomic levels then saturates as function of the strength of Im Vopt. We find that `deeply boundʹ atomic states, which are inaccessible in the atomic cascade process, are generally narrow, due to this mechanism, over the entire periodic table and should be reasonably well resolved. These predictions are insensitive to Vopt, provided it was fitted to the observed X-ray spectra. In contrast, the nuclear states bound by Vopt are very broad and their spectrum depends sensitively on details of Vopt. We discuss production reactions for K− atomic states using slow K− mesons from the decay of the φ(1020) vector meson, and the (View the MathML source) reaction for View the MathML source atomic states. Rough cross section estimates are given.