A hypernucleus is a nucleus

Atomic nucleus

The nucleus is the very dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom. It was discovered in 1911, as a result of Ernest Rutherford's interpretation of the famous 1909 Rutherford experiment performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, under the direction of Rutherford. The...

 which contains at least one hyperon

Hyperon

In particle physics, a hyperon is any baryon containing one or more strange quarks, but no charm quarks or bottom quarks.-Properties and behavior of hyperons:...

 in addition to nucleon

Nucleon

In physics, a nucleon is a collective name for two particles: the neutron and the proton. These are the two constituents of the atomic nucleus. Until the 1960s, the nucleons were thought to be elementary particles...

s. The first was discovered by Marian Danysz

Marian Danysz

Marian Danysz was a Polish physicist.Son of Jan Kazimierz Danysz. In 1952, he co-discovered with Jerzy Pniewski a new kind of matter, an atomic nucleus, which alongside a proton and neutron contains a third particle: the lambda hyperon .Ten years later, they obtained a hypernucleus in excited...

 and Jerzy Pniewski

Jerzy Pniewski

Jerzy Pniewski was a Polish physicist.In 1952, he co-discovered the hypernucleus with Marian Danysz. In 1962, he discovered hypernuclear isomery....

 in 1952.

Since the strangeness

Strangeness

In particle physics, strangeness S is a property of particles, expressed as a quantum number, for describing decay of particles in strong and electromagnetic reactions, which occur in a short period of time...

 quantum number is conserved by the strong

Strong interaction

In particle physics, the strong interaction is one of the four fundamental interactions of nature, the others being electromagnetism, the weak interaction and gravitation. As with the other fundamental interactions, it is a non-contact force...

 and electromagnetic interactions, at least hypernuclei containing the lightest hyperon, the Lambda

Lambda particle

The Lambda baryons are a family of subatomic hadron particles which have the symbols, , and and have +1 elementary charge or are neutral. They are baryons containing three different quarks: one up, one down, and one third quark, which can be either a strange , a charm , a bottom or a top quark...

, live long enough to have sharp nuclear energy levels. Therefore they offer opportunities for nuclear spectroscopy, as well as reaction mechanism study and other types of nuclear physics

Nuclear physics

Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...

 (hypernuclear physics).