Subthreshold and near-threshold kaon and antikaon production in proton-nucleus reactions

TL;DR

This study measures kaon and antikaon production cross sections in proton-nucleus collisions near threshold energies and compares them with theoretical models, providing insights into the underlying production mechanisms and medium effects.

Contribution

It offers detailed experimental data on kaon and antikaon production at near-threshold energies and evaluates the role of various production channels and in-medium effects.

Findings

Strangeness exchange process YN->NNK^- has a small contribution.

Antikaon production is dominated by channels with KK^- in the final state.

Cross sections are weakly affected by in-medium kaon and antikaon mean fields.

Abstract

The differential production cross sections of K^+ and K^- mesons have been measured at the ITEP proton synchrotron in p+Be, p+Cu collisions under lab angle of 10.5^0, respectively, at 1.7 and 2.25, 2.4 GeV beam energies. A detailed comparison of these data with the results of calculations within an appropriate folding model for incoherent primary proton-nucleon, secondary pion-nucleon kaon and antikaon production processes and processes associated with the creation of antikaons via the decay of intermediate phi mesons is given. We show that the strangeness exchange process YN->NNK^- gives a small contribution to the antikaon yield in the kinematics of the performed experiment. We argue that in the case when antikaon production processes are dominated by the channels with KK^- in the final state, the cross sections of the corresponding reactions are weakly influenced by the in-medium kaon and antikaon mean fields.