Strong Interactions in Strange Exotic Atoms

Strong interaction level shifts and widths in ^- and K^- atoms have been analyzed. The phenomenological density dependent approach as well as the relativistic mean field (RMF) model yield nucleus optical potentials with a repulsive real part in the nuclear interior. This has important consequences for the spectroscopy of hypernuclei. The study of K^- atoms cannot resolve the depth of the K^- nucleus potential. The fits to the kaonic atom data are satisfactory for both the relatively shallow potentials derived from chiral models and for the deep potentials based on the phenomenological and RMF analyses.