Ambiguity in antiproton-nucleus potentials from antiprotonic-atom data

Abstract

We show that the $\overline{\mathrm{p}}$-atomic data for $\overline{\mathrm{p}}$+ ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}$, ${}_{}{}^{16}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{O}$, S, and ${}_{}{}^{89}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Y}$ do not yield unique $\overline{\mathrm{p}}$-nucleus potentials. Two families of potentials are found, one with shallow imaginary and deep real parts and one with deep imaginary and shallow real parts. We examine some possible consequences for the n-$\overline{\mathrm{n}}$ oscillation time, for $\overline{\mathrm{p}}$-nuclear bound states, and for $\overline{\mathrm{p}}$-nucleus scattering.