A Weizsacker-Bethe type mass formula for hypernuclei

Theoretical estimates of hypernuclear binding energies are generally much larger than the empirical value and the disagreement is rather marked for the binding energy of sub(Λ)5He. Here we try to explain the so-called over-binding problem by way of introducing a Weizsacker-Bethe type mass formula used for ordinary nuclei. Using the most recent data on binding energies of hypernuclei, parameters of the hypernuclear mass formula are estimated by fitting a least-square curve as is the usual practice in nuclear physics. Theoretical predictions for hypernuclear binding energies are then made by using the formula as obtained above and results compared with experimental values. Agreement with experiment is found to be rather good and in particular the result obtained for sub(Λ)5He, although slightly larger than the observed value, has shown significant improvement over earlier estimates. (author)