  In this work we outline a program for lattice QCD that would provide a first
step toward understanding the strong and weak interactions of strange baryons.
The study of hypernuclear physics has provided a significant amount of
information regarding the structure and weak decays of light nuclei containing
one or two Lambda's, and Sigma's. From a theoretical standpoint, little is
known about the hyperon-nucleon interaction, which is required input for
systematic calculations of hypernuclear structure. Furthermore, the
long-standing discrepancies in the P-wave amplitudes for nonleptonic hyperon
decays remain to be understood, and their resolution is central to a better
understanding of the weak decays of hypernuclei. We present a framework that
utilizes Luscher's finite-volume techniques in lattice QCD to extract the
scattering length and effective range for Lambda-N scattering in both QCD and
partially-quenched QCD. The effective theory describing the nonleptonic decays
of hyperons using isospin symmetry alone, appropriate for lattice calculations,
is constructed.
