Kshort and Lambda production in pp interactions at sqrt(s) = 0.9 and 7 TeV measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper measures Kshort and Lambda production in proton-proton collisions at 0.9 and 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector, comparing results with simulation models to evaluate their accuracy.

Contribution

It provides model-independent measurements of Kshort and Lambda production distributions at two energies, highlighting discrepancies in Lambda transverse momentum predictions.

Findings

Most models agree within 15% for Kshort distributions.

Significant disagreements observed in Lambda transverse momentum distributions.

Results improve understanding of hadron production in high-energy collisions.

Abstract

The production of Kshort and Lambda hadrons is studied in inelastic pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 0.9 and 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a minimum-bias trigger. The observed distributions of transverse momentum, rapidity, and multiplicity are corrected to hadron level in a model-independent way within well defined phase-space regions. The distribution of the production ratio of Lambdabar to Lambda baryons is also measured. The results are compared with various Monte Carlo simulation models. Although most of these models agree with data to within 15% in the Kshort distributions, substantial disagreements with data are found in the Lambda distributions of transverse momentum.