Measurement of differential cross sections for elastic K+p scattering in the momentum range 0.7 to 1.9 GeV/c

Differential cross sections for elastic K⁺p scattering have been measured at nineteen momenta between 0.7 and 1.9 GeV/c. The data represent between 10 thousand and 20 thousand elastic events at each momentum and cover a wide range of scattering angles ($\text{?0.98 ?}\text{cos}\text{θ}{}^1\text{? 0.95}$). A computer controlled system of scintillation counters and acoustic spark chambers was used to detect the elastic events. Various internal consistency checks indicate that the absolute normalization of the data is accurate to within 2–3%. The cross sections show a smooth transition from an isotropic angular distribution to a dominant forward peak over the range covered by the experiment. Phase-shift analyses including these results show little evidence for a direct-channel resonance, and fitting the results by t- and u-channel exchange processes alone gives a good fit.