The kaon optical potential modified by Θ+ Pentaquark excitation

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We study the kaon nuclear optical potential including the effect of the Θ+ pentaquark in a self-consistent approach, starting from an extension of the Juelich meson-exchange potential as bare kaon-nucleon interaction. Significant differences between a fully self-consistent calculation and the low-density Tρapproximation are observed. Whereas te influence of the KN -> Θ+ absorption process is found to be negligible, due to the small Θ+ KN coupling, the two-nucleon mechanism (KNN -> Θ+ N), estimated from the two-meson coupling of the pentaquark, provides the necessary additional kaon absorption to reconcile with data the systematically low theoretical K+ nucleus reaction cross sections.