Neutral strange particle production in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

TL;DR

This study measures neutral strange particle production in deep inelastic scattering at HERA, revealing insights into quark suppression and production mechanisms in high-energy electron-proton collisions.

Contribution

It provides new measurements of ext{k} and ext{ extLambda} production in DIS, showing a stronger strange to light quark suppression than in previous experiments.

Findings

Stronger strange to light quark suppression than in $e^+ e^-$ experiments.

Production properties of ext{k} in different event topologies are similar.

Neutral to charged particle ratio is consistent across event types.

Abstract

This paper presents measurements of \k\ and \lam\ production in neutral current, deep inelastic scattering of 26.7 GeV electrons and 820 GeV protons in the kinematic range $ 10 < Q^{2} < 640 $ GeV$^2$, $0.0003 < x < 0.01$, and $y > 0.04$. Average multiplicities for \k\ and \lam\ production are determined for transverse momenta \ \ptr\ $> 0.5 $ GeV and pseudorapidities $\left| \eta \right| < 1.3$. The multiplicities favour a stronger strange to light quark suppression in the fragmentation chain than found in $e^+ e^-$ experiments. The production properties of \k's in events with and without a large rapidity gap with respect to the proton direction are compared. The ratio of neutral \k's to charged particles per event in the measured kinematic range is, within the present statistics, the same in both samples.