High precision measurement of the associated strangeness production in proton proton interactions

TL;DR

This paper reports a high-precision measurement of the pp -> pK+Lambda reaction at 2.95 GeV/c, analyzing detailed differential observables, correlations, and the cusp structure at the N Sigma threshold to enhance understanding of associated strangeness production.

Contribution

It provides the first high-precision, large-statistics analysis of differential observables and the cusp structure in associated strangeness production in proton-proton interactions.

Findings

Detailed angular and momentum correlations observed.

Invariant mass distributions vary across Dalitz plot regions.

Cusp at N Sigma threshold described with Flatté formalism.

Abstract

A new high precision measurement of the reaction pp -> pK+Lambda at a beam momentum of 2.95 GeV/c with more than 200,000 analyzed events allows a detailed analysis of differential observables and their inter-dependencies. Correlations of the angular distributions with momenta are examined. The invariant mass distributions are compared for different regions in the Dalitz plots. The cusp structure at the N Sigma threshold is described with the Flatt\'e formalism and its variation in the Dalitz plot is analyzed.