Measurement of the<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi mathvariant="italic">B</mml:mi><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mi mathvariant="italic">E</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:math>of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow/><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Λ</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>7</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup></mml:mrow><mml:mi>Li</mml:mi></mml:math>and Shrinkage of the Hypernuclear Size

We report on the first measurement of a hypernuclear gamma-transition probability. gamma rays emitted in the E2(5/2(+)-->1/2(+)) transition of (7)(Lambda)Li were detected by a large-acceptance germanium detector array (Hyperball), and the lifetime of the parent state ( 5/2(+)) was determined by the Doppler shift attenuation method. The obtained result, 5.8(+0.9)(-0.7)+/-0.7 ps, was then converted into the reduced transition probability [ B(E2)] to be B(E2;5/2(+)-->1/2(+)) = 3.6+/-0.5(+0.5)(-0.4) e(2) fm(4). Compared with the B(E2) of the corresponding E2(3(+)-->1(+)) transition in the 6Li nucleus, our result gives evidence that the size of the 6Li core in (7)(Lambda)Li is smaller than the 6Li nucleus in the free space.