The cross section for K + meson production in collisions of 36 Ar ions on a 48 Ti target has been measured at an incident energy of 92 MeV per nucleon. A description of the experimental set-up is given. Twelve events attributed to monoenergetic muons following the decay of stopped kaons have been identified. From these events, one infers a production cross section of 240 pb. Data are briefly discussed.
Results from the HELIOS External Spectrometer on kaon production in 200 GeV/ A S + W and p + W collisions are presented. The K π ratios are compared with results from a lower beam energy and are found to be remarkably similar. Evidence for secondary production of K + by meson-baryon rescattering is reviewed. Our results at y = 1.0–1.5 are compared with neutral strange particle results at midrapidity.
In the very heavy collision system Au197+197Au the K+ production process was studied as a function of impact parameter at 1 GeV/nucleon, a beam energy well below the free N-N threshold. The K+ multiplicity increases more than linearly with the number of participant nucleons and the K+/π+ ratio rises significantly when going from peripheral to central collisions. The measured K+ double differential cross section is enhanced by a factor of 6 compared to microscopic transport calculations if secondary processes (ΔN→KΛN and ΔΔ→KΛN) are ignored.
Measurements of charged pion and kaon production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 40, 80 and 158 AGeV are presented. These are compared with data at lower and higher energies as well as with results from p+p interactions. The mean pion multiplicity per wounded nucleon increases approximately linearly with s_NN^1/4 with a change of slope starting in the region 15-40 AGeV. The change from pion suppression with respect to p+p interactions, as observed at low collision energies, to pion enhancement at high energies occurs at about 40 AGeV. A non-monotonic energy dependence of the ratio of K^+ to pi^+ yields is observed, with a maximum close to 40 AGeV and an indication of a nearly constant value at higher energies.The measured dependences may be related to an increase of the entropy production and a decrease of the strangeness to entropy ratio in central Pb+Pb collisions in the low SPS energy range, which is consistent with the hypothesis that a transient state of deconfined matter is created above these energies. Other interpretations of the data are also discussed.
K+ production far below the free nucleon-nucleon threshold has been investigated in collisions of 36Ar on 12C, natTi, and 181Ta targets at an incident energy of 92 MeV per nucleon. The cross sections for K+ production have been inferred from the observed muon decays of positive kaons. The results are discussed in the framework of a participant-spectator model and are compared to proton induced K+ production and to subthreshold pion production experiments.
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