Double differential cross sections have been measured for pi+ and K+ emitted around midraidity in d+A and He+A collisions at a beam kinetic energy of 1.15 GeV/nucleon. The total pi+ yield increases by a factor of about 2 when using an alpha projectile instead of a deuteron whereas the K+ yield increases by a factor of about 4. According to transport calculations, the K+ enhancement depends both on the number of hadron-hadron collisions and on the energy available in those collisions: their center-of-mass energy increases with increasing number of projectile nucleons.
The spectra are fitted by the equation d3(sig)/d3(p) = CONST*exp(-Ekin/SLOPE), where Ekin is PI+ kinectic energy in the nucleon-nucleon center of mass frame.
The spectra are fitted by the equation d3(sig)/d3(p) = CONST*exp(-Ekin/SLOPE), where Ekin is K+ kinectic energy in the nucleon-nucleon center of mass frame.