Exclusive $K^+$ production in proton-nucleus collisions

The exclusive $K^+$ meson production in a proton-nucleus collision, leading to two body final states, is investigated in a fully covariant two-nucleon model based on the effective Lagrangian picture. The explicit kaon production vertex is described via creation, propagation and decay into relevant channel of $N^*$(1650), $N^*$(1710) and $N^*$(1720) intermediate baryonic states in the initial collision of the projectile nucleon with one of its target counterparts which is modeled by the one-pion exchange process. The calculated cross sections show strong sensitivity to the medium effects on pion propagator and to the final hypernuclear state excited in the reaction.