Strangeness production in proton—proton and proton—nucleus collisions

We discuss the investigation of the strange meson production in proton-proton (pp) and proton-nucleus (pA) reactions within an effective Lagrangian model. The kaon production proceeds mainly via excitations ofN*(1650),N*(1710), andN* (1720) resonant intermediate nucleonic states, in the collision of two initial state nucleons. Therefore, the strangeness production is expected to provide information about the resonances lying at higher excitation energies. For beam energies very close to the kaon production threshold the hyperon-proton final state interaction effects are quite important. Thus, these studies provide a check on the models of hyperon-nucleon interactions. The inmedium production of kaons shows strong sensitivity to the self-energies of the intermediate mesons     

Hyperon production in proton-proton collisions at the time-of-flight spectrometer COSY-TOF

The associated strangeness production in elementary proton-induced reactions is studied exclusively at the external COSY beam using the time-of-flight spectrometer TOF. The complete measurement of all charged-particle tracks allows the extraction of total and differential cross-sections and Dalitz plots as well. Especially the analysis of the Dalitz plots of the reaction shows a strong influence of N ^*-resonances.Received: 30 September 2002, Published online: 22 October 2003PACS: 13.75.Cs Nucleon-nucleon interactions (including antinucleons, deuterons, etc.) - 14.20.Jn HyperonsW. Schroeder: For the COSY-TOF Collaboration     

Strangeness production in AA collisions at SIS18

Aluminium oxides doped with 1% ⁵⁷Fe were prepared by sol-gel method, and annealed for 3 hours at various temperatures between 550°C and 1100°C. Amorphous phases were obtained below 1000°C, and crystalline α–Al₂O₃ was formed at 1100°C. Although Al₂O₃ itself shows diamagnetism, the light doping of Fe ions into aluminium oxide induced a very weak ferromagnetism, but the ferromagnetism disappeared by longer annealing. M?ssbauer spectra were composed of paramagnetic Fe^2?+? and Fe^3?+? species for samples heated below 750°C, and of paramagnetic Fe^3?+? above 850°C, in addition to a magnetic sextet and relaxation peaks of Fe^3?+?. The magnetic and quadrupole interactions of the sextet and the relaxation peaks and the density functional calculations suggest that the lightly doped Fe^3?+? ions are substituted at Al sites in the Al₂O₃ lattice.     

Strangeness production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Kaon production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is studied. Particular attention is paid to situations in which high densities are obtained, such as in the Brookhaven AGS experiments with 14.6 GeV/nucleon Si on Au. Because of the explicit chiral-symmetry breaking terms in chiral Langrangians, kaons acquire an effective mass m _K ^* which goes to zero at the critical baryon density. Well before such densities, m _K ^* is sufficiently reduced to greatly facilitate kaon production through processes like K¯K. Previous expressions for the decreasing kaon mass were arrived at by linear chiral perturbation theory. Whereas we cannot systematically proceed to higher order, we use physical models to suggest how relevant quantities will behave in higher order. We present arguments that m _K ^* effectively goes to zero in the present AGS experiments.Supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy Grant No. DE-FG02-88ER40388     

Hyperon production at COSY-TOF

The strangeness production program at the COSY-TOF experiment is discussed. The apparatus is shown emphasizing the technique to measure delayed decays. Results obtained for the reactions pp→K ⁺ Λp and pp→K ⁰ Σ ⁺ p are discussed.     

Kaon pair production close to threshold

The total cross section of the reaction pp→ppK⁺K⁻$pp\to pp{K}^{+}{K}^{-}$ has been measured at excess energies Q=10 MeV$Q=10\text{MeV}$ and 28 MeV with the magnetic spectrometer COSY-11. The new data show a significant enhancement of the total cross section compared to pure phase space expectations or calculations within a one boson exchange model. In addition, we present invariant mass spectra of two particle subsystems. While the K⁺K⁻$K^{+}{K}^{-}$ system is rather constant for different invariant masses, there is an enhancement in the pK⁻$p{K}^{-}$ system towards lower masses which could at least be partially connected to the influence of the Λ(1405)$\Lambda (1405)$ resonance.     

Strangeness in Pb---Pb collisions at 158 A GeV

We study relative strange particle abundances measured in Pb---Pb 158 A GeV interactions. The thermal and chemical source parameters of these particles are determined under reaction scenario hypothesis invoking confined and deconfined hadronic matter.     

Scalar-isovector K¯ production close to threshold

The reaction pp → dK ⁺ˉ has been investigated at excess energies Q = 47.4 and 104.7MeV above the K ⁺ˉ threshold at COSY Jülich. Coincident dK⁺ pairs were detected with the ANKE spectrometer, and subsequently ∼ 2000 events with a missing ˉ invariant mass were identified, which fully populate the Dalitz plot. The joint analysis of invariant mass and angular distributions reveals s-wave dominance between the two kaons, in conjunction with a p-wave between the deuteron and the kaon pair, i.e. Kˉ production via the a ₀ ⁺(980) channel. Integration of the differential distributions yields total cross-sections of σ(pp → dK ⁺ˉ) = (38±2_stat±14_syst)nb and (190±4_stat±39_syst)nb for the low and high Q value, respectively.     

Strangeness production in nuclear interactions at 200 A GeV and the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions

Data on mean numbers of , , K's and on the total number of pairs of strange valence quarks in final state hadrons in hadronic and nuclear collisions at CERN-SPS energies are studied as a function of the mean number of nucleon-nucleon collisions. Results give indications of an almost linear dependence over most of the region of . This in turn points out to strangeness being produced mostly in the central rapidity region of nucleon-nucleon collisions by a mechanism similar to a hard or semi-hard process. The available data are extrapolated to Pb+Pb interactions by two simple models, leading to . Observations exceeding these values of would give evidence of the onset of a new dynamical regime in Pb+Pb interactions. Received: 15 September 1997 / Revised version: 9 December 1997 / Published online: 26 February 1998     

Strangeness distributions in hadronic collisions

The distribution of strangeness versus rapidity is studied in the multichain fragmentation model and in the one chain fragmentation model. It is shown that the multichain model describes rightly theK ⁺ p strangeness distribution data.     

Strange particle production mechanisms in proton—Proton collisions at RHIC

We present data on strange particle production in elementary proton-proton collisions at RHIC energies. Comparison to leading order and next-to-leading order (NLO) calculations shows that the fragmentation process is flavor dependent and that higher order corrections are needed to describe all spectra, in particular at these collision energies, which are modest compared to those at the Tevatron. A model (EPOS) which takes into account multiple scattering between projectile constituents seems to describe the data best.     

Scalar-meson production in nucleon-nucleon collisions near threshold

We establish the model-independent spin structure of the matrix elements for the near-threshold scalar-meson production in pp and np collisions, when the final particles are emitted in S-state. Polarization phenomena are derived in a general form. The properties of the t-channel dynamics, which is based on different meson exchanges, are studied in terms of the s-channel parametrization of the matrix element. The predictions of a model, based on exchanges are also presented.Received: 1 April 2003, Published online: 11 November 2003PACS: 13.75.Cs Nucleon-nucleon interactions (including antinucleons, deuterons, etc.) - 21.10.Hw Spin, parity, and isobaric spin - 13.88. + e Polarization in interactions and scatteringM.P. Rekalo: Permanent address: NSC-Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, 310108 Kharkov, Ukraine.     

Strangeness in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Abundances of strange antibaryons formed in nuclear collisions at above 10 GeV/A are considered as a most accessible diagnostic tool for the study of the possible formation and physical properties of the quark-gluon plasma phase of hadronic matter. In this report we describe the current status and develop a dynamical approach in order to describe strange particle formation in nuclear collisions at high energy.     

Heavy quark energy loss in proton proton collisions at LHC

A promising probe to study deconfined matter created in high energy nuclear collisions is the energy loss of (heavy) quarks. Experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have shown that heavy quarks, i.e. charm and bottom quarks show a remarkable high momentum suppression, comparable to light quarks. In this exploratory study we investigate the energy loss of heavy quarks in high multiplicity proton proton collisions at LHC energies. We will find a small, however non-negligible energy loss of high momentum charm quarks.     

Novel approach to pion and eta production in proton-proton collisions near threshold

We evaluate the threshold matrix–element for the reaction pp→ppπ⁰ in a fully relativistic Feynman diagrammatic approach. We employ a simple effective range approximation to take care of the S–wave pp final–state interaction. The experimental value for the threshold amplitude A = (2.7 −i0.3) fm⁴ can be reproduced by contributions from tree level chiral (long–range) pion exchange and short–range effects related to vector meson exchanges, with ω-exchange giving the largest individual contribution. Pion loop effects appear to be small. We stress that the commonly used heavy baryon formalism is not applicable in the NN–system above the pion production threshold due to the large external momentum, |p|≃ (Mm _π)^−1/2, with M and m _π the nucleon and the pion mass, respectively. We furthermore investigate the reaction pp→pnπ⁺ near threshold within the same approach. We extract from the data the triplet threshold amplitude as B = (2.8 −i1.5) fm⁴. Its real part can be well understood from (relativistic) tree level meson–exchange diagrams. In addition, we investigate the process pp→ppη near threshold. We use a simple factorization ansatz for the ppη final–state interaction and extract from the data the modulus of the threshold amplitude, |C|= 1.32 fm⁴. With g _ηN= 5.3, this value can be reproduced by (relativistic) tree level meson–exchange diagrams and η–rescattering, whose strength is fixed by the ηN scattering length. We also comment on the recent near threshold data for η^′–production. Received: 27 November 1998