K+-nucleon hard core radii in complex nuclei

K+-nucleus cross sections are consistently above those computed using free-space K+-nucleon interactions. Many influences of the nucleon medium have been invoked to explain this, but the present analysis uses K+-nuclear data to infer the size of the repulsive hard core radius between the K+ and nucleons within nuclei by altering a single parameter, the average S-wave phase shift. The resulting hard core radii, larger than seen in free space, increase with nuclear densities. copyright 1999 The American Physical Society