Measurement of the proton spectra from non-mesonic weak decay of 5ΛHe, 7ΛLi and 12ΛC

The results of a measurement of the proton spectra following the non-mesonic weak decay of 5ΛHe, 7ΛLi and 12ΛC are presented and discussed. The experiment was performed at the (e+ e−) collider DANE at Laboratori Nazionale di Frascati of INFN. It is the first measurement for 7ΛLi, and for all the spectra the lower limit on the energy of the protons is 15 MeV, never reached before. All the spectra show a similar shape, namely a peak at around 80 MeV as expected for the free Λp →np weak reaction, with a low energy rise that should be due to final state interactions and/or two-nucleon induced weak processes. The decay spectrum of 5ΛHe is somehow similar to the ones reported by previous measurements and theoretical calculations, but the same does not happen for the 12ΛC one.