An event excess observed in the deeply bound region of the 12C (K−, p) missing-mass spectrum

We have measured, for the first time, the inclusive missing-mass spectrum of the $^{12}$C$(K^-, p)$ reaction at an incident kaon momentum of 1.8 GeV/$c$ at the J-PARC K1.8 beamline. We observed a prominent quasi-elastic peak ($K^-p \rightarrow K^-p$) in this spectrum. In the quasi-elastic peak region, the effect of secondary interaction is apparently observed as a peak shift, and the peak exhibits a tail in the bound region. We compared the spectrum with a theoretical calculation based on the Green’s function method by assuming different values of the parameters for the $\bar{K}$–nucleus optical potential. We found that the spectrum shape in the binding-energy region $-300 \, \text{MeV} < B_{K} < 40$ MeV is best reproduced with the potential depths $V_0 = -80$ MeV (real part) and $W_0 = -40$ MeV (imaginary part). On the other hand, we observed a significant event excess in the deeply bound region around $B_{K} \sim 100$ MeV, where the major decay channel of $K^- NN \to \pi\Sigma N$ is energetically closed, and the non-mesonic decay modes ($K^- NN \to \Lambda N$ and $\Sigma N$) should mainly contribute. The enhancement is fitted well by a Breit–Wigner function with a kaon-binding energy of 90 MeV and width 100 MeV. A possible interpretation is a deeply bound state of a $Y^{*}$-nucleus system.