  We present an overview of the latest theoretical studies on the antikaon
properties in the nuclear medium, in connection with the recent experimental
claims of very deeply bound antikaon-nuclear states. We argue that proper
many-body formulations using modern realistic antikaon-nucleon interactions are
not able to generate such systems. Instead, a simple two-nucleon antikaon
absorption mechanism where the remaining nucleus acts as spectator explains the
peak in the semi-inclusive proton momentum spectrum, observed on a 4He target
at KEK (but later not confirmed in an inclusive experiment) and on a 6Li target
at FINUDA. This signal is clearly seen in another FINUDA experiment measuring
the invariant mass of Lambda-proton pairs after two-nucleon kaon absorption. We
show that another peak of this experiment, seen at lower invariant masses and
interpreted as a bound K-pp state, is simply generated by the same two-nucleon
absorption mechanism followed by final-state interactions of the produced
particles with the residual nucleus. Our conclusion is that all the
experimental claims for the formation of very deeply bound antikaonic nuclear
systems receive an alternative explanation in terms of conventional nuclear
processes.
