Regge-plus-resonance predictions for charged-kaon photoproduction from the deuteron

TL;DR

This paper develops a Regge-inspired effective-Lagrangian model to predict charged-kaon photoproduction from the deuteron, incorporating Regge trajectories and resonance exchanges, and analyzes uncertainties and limitations in the predictions.

Contribution

It extends the Regge-plus-resonance model to deuteron targets for charged-kaon production, including neutron channels and uncertainty analysis.

Findings

Severe limitations due to experimental errors on photocoupling amplitudes.

Model successfully describes kaon production off protons and extends to neutrons.

Uncertainty analysis highlights the predictive challenges in quasi-free neutron production.

Abstract

We present a Regge-inspired effective-Lagrangian framework for charged-kaon photoproduction from the deuteron. Quasi-free kaon production is investigated using the Regge-plus-resonance elementary operator within the non-relativistic plane-wave impulse approximation. The Regge-plus-resonance model was developed to describe photoinduced and electroinduced kaon production off protons and can be extended to strangeness production off neutrons. The non-resonant contributions to the amplitude are modelled in terms of K+(494) and K*+(892) Regge-trajectory exchange in the t-channel. This amplitude is supplemented with a selection of s-channel resonance-exchange diagrams. We investigate several sources of theoretical uncertainties on the semi-inclusive charged-kaon production cross section. The experimental error bars on the photocoupling helicity amplitudes turn out to put severe limits on the predictive power when considering quasi-free kaon production on a bound neutron.