Strange Particle Production in pp Collisions at sqrt(s) = 0.9 and 7 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of strange hadron production in proton-proton collisions at 0.9 and 7 TeV, revealing significant discrepancies with theoretical predictions and previous experiments.

Contribution

First detailed measurement of strange hadron spectra at these energies, providing crucial data for tuning particle production models.

Findings

Transverse momentum distributions differ from PYTHIA predictions.

Production rates exceed PYTHIA estimates by up to a factor of three.

Results are consistent with other experimental data.

Abstract

The spectra of strange hadrons are measured in proton-proton collisions, recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, at centre-of-mass energies of 0.9 and 7 TeV. The K^0_s, Lambda, and Xi^- particles and their antiparticles are reconstructed from their decay topologies and the production rates are measured as functions of rapidity and transverse momentum. The results are compared to other experiments and to predictions of the PYTHIA Monte Carlo program. The transverse momentum distributions are found to differ substantially from the PYTHIA results and the production rates exceed the predictions by up to a factor of three.