Search for a hidden strange baryon-meson bound state from $φ$ production in a nuclear medium

We investigate the hidden strange light baryon-meson system. With the resonating-group method, two bound states, $η'-N$ and $φ-N$, are found in the quark delocalization color screening model. Focusing on the $φ-N$ bound state around 1950\,MeV, we obtain the total decay width of about 4\,MeV by calculating the phase shifts in the resonance scattering processes. To study the feasibility of an experimental search for the $φ-N$ bound state, we perform a Monte Carlo simulation of the bound state production with an electron beam and a gold target. In the simulation, we use the CLAS12 detector with the Forward Tagger and the BONUS12 detector in Hall B at Jefferson Lab. Both the signal and the background channels are estimated. We demonstrate that the signal events can be separated from the background with some momentum cuts. Therefore it is feasible to experimentally search for the $φ-N$ bound state through the near threshold $φ$ meson production from heavy nuclei.