Weak decay of p-shell lambda hypernuclei

Methods and results of an experiment to study the weak decay of Lambda hypernuclei are presented. The hypernuclei under study were /sub Λ/12C, /sub Λ/11B, plus a hypernucleus of unknown charge and mass designated /sub Λ//sup A/Z. The hypernuclei were produced using the strangeness changing reaction K- + 12C → π- + /sub Λ12C. The hypernuclear production data were obtained using the Hypernuclear Spectrometer and the Low Energy Separated Beam (LESB I), at the AGS of Brookhaven National Laboratory. The Kaon beam momentum was 805 MeV/c. The experimental results are compared with several calculations for hypernuclear nonmesonic decay in infinite nuclear matter and in finite nuclei. Several of these calculations agree favorably with the total nonmesonic rate, but none of the calculations are able to determine both the nonmesonic rate and the neutron stimulated fraction, n