Investigation of the low energy kaons hadronic interactions in light nuclei by AMADEUS

The AMADEUS experiment has the aim to perform studies of the low energy hadronic interactions of negatively charged kaons with nucleons and nuclei, which are fundamental to solve longstanding open questions in the non-perturbative QCD in the strangeness sector. The DAΦNE collider provides a unique source of monochromatic low-momentum kaons, whose nuclear interaction with the materials of the KLOE detector (used as an active target) provide us excellent acceptance and resolution data for K− capture on H, 4He, 9Be and 12C, both at-rest and in-flight. AMADEUS step 0 consisted in the analysis of the 2004-2005 KLOE data. A second step consisted in the implementation in the central region of the KLOE detector of a pure graphite target, providing a high statistic sample of K− 12C nuclear captures at rest. For the future, new setups for various dedicated targets are under preparation. The aim of such investigations is to face the major open questions in hadron nuclear physics in the strangeness sector, such as the nature of the Λ(1405) state and the resonant versus non-resonant yield in nuclear K− capture, the possible existence of kaonic nuclear clusters, strongly related to a quantitative understanding of single versus multi-nucleon K− absorption.