August 28, 2015 Preprint Open Access

Experimental review of hypernuclear physics: recent achievements and future perspectives

Feliciello, A.; Nagae, T.

This is the Accepted Manuscript version of an article accepted for publication in REPORTS ON PROGRESS IN PHYSICS.  IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at https://doi.org/10.1088/0034-4885/78/9/096301

Since the shutdown of several old proton synchrotrons, which played a fundamental role in the second generation experiments in hypernuclear physics performed in Europe, USA and Japan, some new experimental setups aiming to achieve sub-MeV energy resolution have been operating for a long time. Over the last decade the hypernuclear physics community has been committed to carrying out several third generation experiments by exploiting the potential offered by new accelerators, such as a continuous electron beam machine and a ϕ-factory. Large data samples were collected on specific items thanks to dedicated facilities and experimental apparatuses. The attention was mainly focused on both high-resolution spectroscopy and the decay mode study of single Λ-hypernuclei. Nowadays this phase is over but, until recently, important and, to some extent, unexpected results were achieved. An updated review of selected experimental results is presented, as well as a survey of perspectives for future studies.