577The ratio of the K+ total cross section of nuclei to that of deuterons, Rr, is calculated in the framework of the Glauber approach. The quantity Rr is sensitive to the ratio of the real to imaginary part of the K+ N amplitude, e. In the region of low K+ momentum, Rr is larger than unity since lei> 1 for light nuclei. § 1. IntroductionThe K+ meson is the weakest among hadronic probes of nuclei. Its mean free path is very long in nuclear medium (5--7 fm), and the energy dependence of the K+ N cross section is also very smooth at low momenta. Hence, microscopic calculations based on the impulse approximation (KMT multiple scattering theory 1 > or Glauber theory 2 >) are expected to work in explaining K+ scattering on nuclei A. In spite of these facts, the differential cross sections for K+ -A scattering on 12 C and 4°C a measured 3 > at Rab=800 MeV /c more than ten years ago have not been reproduced 4 > by conventional calculations with the K+ N phase shifts given by Giacomelli et al. 5 > and Martin. 6 > For the past decade, great efforfHo> has been made in realizing agreement with data, considering higher corrections such as two-body correlation effects arising from nuclear deformation, double spin-flip and double isospin-fiip, off-shell effects and binding effects of nucleons. However, none of these effects has significantly improved the agreement, even if an overall 17 % normalization uncertainty in the absolute values of the data is taken into account.Considering the quenching of inelastic electron-nucleon longitudinal response function 11 > and the EMC effects/ 2 >' 13 > Siegel et al. 14 > suggested that K+ could be sensitive to an increase in the effective nucleon size in nuclear medium ("swelling") and that if the nucleons in the nucleus "swell" the effects could be detected by measuring the ratio of the K+ total cross section of nuclei to that of deuteronsFurther, Brown et att 5 > considered the density dependence of the vector-meson masses of the meson cloud around the nucleon in nuclear media. The swelling considered as an increase in the Su K+ N phase shift or an increase in the nucleon effective size due to the decrease of the vector-meson masses makes the predicted cross sections large.The ratios Rr for 6 Li, 12 C, 28 Si and 4°C a have recently been measured 16 > at 490 MeV /c~Ptab~714 MeV /c. When the K+ N phase shifts given by Giacomelli et al., Martin and Hashimoto 17 > are used in the conventional calculations, the Rr predicted are small compared with the measured values. The increase of the nucleon effective size predicts large Rr.