In-medium effects on phase space distributions of antikaons measured in proton-nucleus collisions.
/ Authors
W. Scheinast, I. Böttcher, M. Dȩbowski, F. Dohrmann, A. Förster, E. Grosse, P. Koczoń, B. Kohlmeyer, F. Laue, M. Menzel
and 12 more authors
L. Naumann, E. Schwab, P. Senger, Y. Shin, H. Ströbele, C. Sturm, G. Surówka, F. Uhlig, A. Wagner, W. Waluś, B. Kämpfer, H. Barz
/ Abstract
Differential production cross sections of K+/- mesons have been measured in p + C and p + Au collisions at 1.6, 2.5, and 3.5 GeV proton beam energy. At beam energies close to the production threshold, the K- multiplicity is strongly enhanced with respect to proton-proton collisions. According to microscopic transport calculations, this enhancement is caused by two effects: the strangeness exchange reaction NY --> K- NN and an attractive in-medium K- N potential at saturation density.
Journal: Physical review letters