$K^{0}_{S}$ meson production in inelastic $\textit{p+p}$ interactions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum measured by NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of $K^{0}_{S}$ meson production in inelastic proton-proton collisions at 158 GeV/c, providing detailed distributions and mean multiplicity, and compares results with various theoretical models and existing data.

Contribution

First measurement of $K^{0}_{S}$ production at 158 GeV/c in p+p collisions with detailed distributions and model comparisons.

Findings

Mean $K^{0}_{S}$ multiplicity is 0.162.

Results agree with some model predictions and previous data.

Provides new data for refining particle production models.

Abstract

The production of $K^{0}_{S}$ mesons in inelastic $\textit{p+p}$ collisions at beam momentum 158 GeV/c ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}=17.3$ GeV) was measured with the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. Double-differential distributions were obtained in transverse momentum and rapidity. The mean multiplicity of $K^{0}_{S}$ was determined to be $0.162 \pm 0.001 (stat.) \pm 0.011 (sys.)$. The results on $K^{0}_{S}$ production are compared with model predictions (EPOS 1.99, SMASH 2.0, PHSD and UrQMD 3.4 models) as well as with published world data.