The nonleptonic weak $\mid \mathrm{<ruby><rb>\Delta </rb><rt>でるた</rt></ruby>}S\mid =1\mathrm{<ruby><rb>\Lambda </rb><rt>らむだ</rt></ruby>}N$ interaction, responsible for the dominant nonmesonic decay of all but the lightest hypernuclei, is studied in the framework of an effective-field theory. The long-range physics is described through tree-level exchange of the SU(3) Goldstone bosons, while the short-range potential is parametrized in terms of the lowest-order contact terms. We obtain reasonable fits to available weak hypernuclear decay rates and quote the values for the parity-violating asymmetry as predicted by the present effective-field theory.

• Received 25 September 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.70.051601