Interaction ofK+mesons with nuclei

We investigate the general features of $K^{+}$ meson interactions with nucleons and nuclei. A first-order optical potential is constructed, and used to predict $K^{+}$ total elastic and reaction cross sections on typical nuclei in the low-energy domain ($p_{\mathrm{lab}}\le 800$ MeV/c). The sensitivity of these cross sections to changes in the nuclear radius and surface thickness is explored. Comparisons with the available $K^{+}$-emulsion data are made. We emphasize that a low-energy $K^{+}$ is the only available strongly interacting hadron which is weakly absorbed in nuclei (mean free path ≅ 7 fm). This makes it an appealingly simple probe for nuclear structure studies.