The lifetime of the Lambda hyperon bound in hypernuclei produced by p+U collisions

The nonmesonic decay of the Lambda hyperon has been investigated by observation of delayed fission from heavy hypernuclei produced in proton-U collisions at Tp = 1.9 GeV. The lifetime of heavy hypernuclei with masses A approximately 220 obtained in the present work, i.e. tau = 138 +- 6 (stat.) +-m 17 (syst.) ps, is the most accurate result for heavy hypernuclei produced in proton and antiproton induced collisions on a U target so far. PACS: {13.30.-a}{Decays of baryons} {13.75.Ev}{Hyperon-nucleon interaction} {21.80}{Hypernuclei} {25.80.Pw}{Hyperon-induced reactions}