Inclusive $V^0$ Production Cross Sections from 920 GeV Fixed Target Proton-Nucleus Collisions

TL;DR

This paper measures inclusive production cross sections of strange particles in 920 GeV proton-nucleus collisions, analyzing their dependence on target material and comparing results with other energies to enhance understanding of particle production mechanisms.

Contribution

It provides new measurements of differential and total cross sections for extkzeros, extlambdazero, and extantilambda particles across various target materials at high energy.

Findings

Cross section ratios klpa and llpa measured at ~6.2 and 0.66.

No significant target material dependence observed in cross sections.

Cross sections per nucleon compared with other energy results.

Abstract

Inclusive differential cross sections $d\sigma_{pA}/dx_F$ and $d\sigma_{pA}/dp_t^2$ for the production of \kzeros, \lambdazero, and \antilambda particles are measured at HERA in proton-induced reactions on C, Al, Ti, and W targets. The incident beam energy is 920 GeV, corresponding to $\sqrt {s} = 41.6$ GeV in the proton-nucleon system. The ratios of differential cross sections \rklpa and \rllpa are measured to be $6.2\pm 0.5$ and $0.66\pm 0.07$, respectively, for \xf $\approx-0.06$. No significant dependence upon the target material is observed. Within errors, the slopes of the transverse momentum distributions $d\sigma_{pA}/dp_t^2$ also show no significant dependence upon the target material. The dependence of the extrapolated total cross sections $\sigma_{pA}$ on the atomic mass $A$ of the target material is discussed, and the deduced cross sections per nucleon $\sigma_{pN}$ are compared with results obtained at other energies.