Inclusive K^+ meson production in proton-nucleus interactions
Abstract
The production of K^+ mesons in pA (A = D, C, Cu, Ag, Au) collisions has been investigated at the COoler SYnchrotron COSY-J\"ulich for beam energies T_p = 1.0 - 2.3 GeV. Double differential inclusive pC cross sections at forward angles theta < 12 degrees as well as the target-mass dependence of the K^+ momentum spectra have been measured with the ANKE spectrometer. Far below the free NN threshold at T_{NN}=1.58 GeV the spectra reveal a high degree of collectivity in the target nucleus. From the target-mass dependence of the cross sections at higher energies, the repulsive in-medium potential of K^+ mesons can be deduced. Using pN cross-section parameterisations from literature and our measured pD data we derive a cross-section ratio of sigma(pn -> K^+ X) / sigma(pp -> K^+ X) ~ (3-4).
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.nucl-ex/0401031,
title = {Inclusive K^+ meson production in proton-nucleus interactions},
author = {M. Büscher and V. Koptev and M. Nekipelov and Z. Rudy and H. Ströher and Yu. Valdau and S. Barsov and M. Hartmann and V. Hejny and V. Kleber and N. Lang and I. Lehmann and S. Mikirtychiants and H. Ohm},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:nucl-ex/0401031},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in EPJ A; 17 pages, 10 figures, 11 tables