Disintegration of Hyperfragments

The decay of 10 hyperfragments of hydrogen, helium, and lithium is described. Only one event is uniquely identified, as ${\mathrm{H}}^{4*}\to {\mathrm{He}}^3+n+{\pi }^{-}$; it gives a binding energy of the ${\Lambda }^0$ particle $\mathrm{B}.\mathrm{E}.\mathrm{}\left({\Lambda }^0\right)=1.5\mathrm{}\pm 0.7$ Mev. One event represents the decay in flight of a hydrogen hyperfragment. In one case a helium hyperfragment was ejected from a star produced by a negative $K$ meson. A very simple method for charge determination of short fragments emitted in nuclear disintegrations is described and applied to the identification of hyperfragments.