Open-charm systems in cold nuclear matter

We study the spectral distributions of charmed meson with J(P) = 0(-) quantum numbers in cold nuclear matter applying a self-consistent and covariant many-body approach established previously for the nuclear dynamics of kaons. At leading orders the computation requires as input the free-space two-body scattering amplitudes only. Our results are based on the s-wave meson-nucleon amplitudes obtained recently in terms of a coupled-channel approach. The amplitudes are characterized by the presence of many resonances in part so far not observed. This gives rise to an intriguing dynamics of charmed mesons in nuclear matter. At nuclear saturation density we predict a pronounced two-mode structure of the D+ mesons with a main branch pushed up by about 32 MeV The lower branch reflects the coupling to two resonance-hole states that are almost degenerate. For the D- we obtain a single mode pushed up by about 18 MeV relative to the vacuum mode. Most spectacular are the results for the D-s(+) meson. The presence of an exotic resonance-hole state gives rise to a rather broad and strongly momentum dependent spectral distribution. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.