Nuclei containing an antinucleon

We have investigated the possibility that a nucleus containing a single antinucleon (N») may exhibit some relatively long-lived excited states. Using N» optical potentials consistent with the available data on p»-atom level shifts and/or low energy p»-nucleus scattering, and calculating the complex eigenvalues of the Schrödinger equation, we find that the annihilation widths of strongly bound (non-Coulomb) N» states are generally large, as expected, of order S50100 MeV. Some possible exceptions to this may occur when the N» is bound to a light nuclear core which is not spin and isospin saturated. We obtain cross section estimates for the formation of N» nuclei via the (p»,p) and (p»,n) reactions on nuclear targets with A=3, 4, and 16.