2007/01/08 by A. Foerster, A. Förster, F. Uhlig +40
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #nucl-ex
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.75.024906
published as Phys.Rev.C75:024906,2007 · accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C 22 pages, 26 figures
arxiv created 2007/01/08 · openalex publication_date 2007/02/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2017/03/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper summarizes the yields and the emission patterns of K+ and of K^\ensuremath- mesons measured in inclusive C+C, Ni+Ni, and Au+Au collisions at incident energies from 0.6A to 2.0A GeV using the Kaon Spectrometer KaoS at GSI. For Ni+Ni collisions at 1.5A and at 1.93A GeV as well as for Au+Au at 1.5A GeV, detailed results are presented of the multiplicities, of the inverse slope parameters, and of the anisotropies in the angular emission patterns as a function of the collision centrality. When comparing transport-model calculations to the measured K+ production yields, an agreement is only obtained for a soft nuclear equation of state (compression modulus KN\ensuremath≈200 MeV). The production of K^\ensuremath- mesons at energies around 1A to 2A GeV is dominated by the strangeness-exchange reaction K^\ensuremath-N\ensuremath\rightleftharpoons\ensuremathπY (Y=\ensuremathΛ,\ensuremathΣ) which leads to a coupling between the K^\ensuremath- and K+ yields. However, both particle species show distinct differences in their emission patterns suggesting different freeze-out conditions for K+ and K^\ensuremath- mesons.