Abstract
The first order and the second order optical potential is used in the analysis of shifts and widths of the last observed level in kaonic atoms. The effect of the Pauli correlation for plane-wave nucleon states and harmonic oscillator wave functions is studied in the case of kaonic carbon. In each instance, an equivalent local form of the optical potential is used. The validity of the closure approximation is investigated by expressing the second order optical potential in terms of single particle energies. This is done by using the KMT* formalism and by employing the occupation number representation, with the approximation that the nucleus may be represented by a single Slater determinant. The KN scattering lengths obtained by Martin (1976) are extrapolated to the region of the Y*[0](1405) resonance and are used as input amplitudes. Some phenomenological calculations are performed with the object of elucidating general characteristics of the kaon-nucleus interaction, and to check the sensitivity of the results to the variation of the nuclear structure parameters. The techniques of obtaining average scattering lengths and the extrapolation of threshold values of scattering lengths to the region of Y*[0](1405) resonance are reviewed and re-evaluated in view of the availability of new two-body data. To assess the usefulness of folding- model potentials in the study of kaonic atoms, the usual technique is revised for different sets of the two-body data. The results are found to be very sensitive to the range of the kaon-nucleon force. The electromagnetic transition rates are computed by taking into account the distortion of the atomic wave functions in the presence of strong interaction. The enhancement in the width is observed to be negligible compared to some other electromagnetic corrections. The information gained by studying those processes which mix atomic and nuclear degrees of freedom is also discussed.