Strange meson production in Al+Al collisions at 1.9 A GeV

P. Gasik; K. Piasecki; N. Herrmann; Y. Leifels; T. Matulewicz; A. Andronic; R. Averbeck; V. Barret; Z. Basrak; N. Bastid; M. L. Benabderrahmane; M. Berger; P. Buehler; M. Cargnelli; R. Čaplar; P. Crochet; O. Czerwiakowa; I. Deppner; P. Dupieux; M. Dželalija; L. Fabbietti; Z. Fodor; I. Gašparić; Y. Grishkin; O. N. Hartmann; K. D. Hildenbrand; B. Hong; T. I. Kang; J. Kecskemeti; Y. J. Kim; M. Kirejczyk; M. Kiš; P. Koczon; R. Kotte; A. Lebedev; A. Le Fèvre; J. L. Liu; X. Lopez; V. Manko; J. Marton; R. Münzer; M. Petrovici; F. Rami; A. Reischl; W. Reisdorf; M. S. Ryu; P. Schmidt; A. Schüttauf; Z. Seres; B. Sikora; K. S. Sim; V. Simion; K. Siwek-Wilczyńska; V. Smolyankin; K. Suzuki; Z. Tymiński; P. Wagner; I. Weber; E. Widmann; K. Wiśniewski; Z. G. Xiao; I. Yushmanov; Y. Zhang; A. Zhilin; V. Zinyuk; J. Zmeskal

doi:10.1140/epja/i2016-16177-y

2023 Impact factor 2.6

Hadrons and Nuclei

Eur. Phys. J. A (2016) 52: 177
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2016-16177-y

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Strange meson production in Al+Al collisions at 1.9 A GeV

P. Gasik¹^,2^,3^*, K. Piasecki¹, N. Herrmann⁴, Y. Leifels⁵, T. Matulewicz¹, A. Andronic⁵, R. Averbeck⁵, V. Barret⁶, Z. Basrak⁷, N. Bastid⁶, M. L. Benabderrahmane⁴, M. Berger³, P. Buehler⁸, M. Cargnelli⁸, R. Čaplar⁷, P. Crochet⁶, O. Czerwiakowa¹, I. Deppner⁴, P. Dupieux⁶, M. Dželalija⁹, L. Fabbietti²^,3, Z. Fodor¹⁰, I. Gašparić⁷, Y. Grishkin¹¹, O. N. Hartmann⁵, K. D. Hildenbrand⁵, B. Hong¹², T. I. Kang⁵^,12, J. Kecskemeti¹⁰, Y. J. Kim⁵, M. Kirejczyk¹^,13, M. Kiš⁵^,7, P. Koczon⁵, R. Kotte¹⁴, A. Lebedev¹¹, A. Le Fèvre⁵, J. L. Liu¹⁵, X. Lopez⁶, V. Manko¹⁶, J. Marton⁸, R. Münzer²^,3, M. Petrovici¹⁷, F. Rami¹⁸, A. Reischl⁴, W. Reisdorf⁵, M. S. Ryu¹², P. Schmidt⁸, A. Schüttauf⁵, Z. Seres¹⁰, B. Sikora¹, K. S. Sim¹², V. Simion¹⁷, K. Siwek-Wilczyńska¹, V. Smolyankin¹¹, K. Suzuki⁸, Z. Tymiński⁴, P. Wagner¹⁸, I. Weber⁹, E. Widmann⁸, K. Wiśniewski¹^,4, Z. G. Xiao¹⁹, I. Yushmanov¹⁶, Y. Zhang⁴^,20, A. Zhilin¹¹, V. Zinyuk⁴ and J. Zmeskal⁸

¹ Institute of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
² Excellence Cluster “Origin and Structure of the Universe”, Garching, Germany
³ Physik Department E62, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany
⁴ Physikalisches Institut der Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
⁵ GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany
⁶ Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire, IN2P3/CNRS, and Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France
⁷ Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
⁸ Stefan-Meyer-Institut für subatomare Physik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Austria
⁹ University of Split, Split, Croatia
¹⁰ Wigner RCP, RMKI, Budapest, Hungary
¹¹ Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, Russia
¹² Korea University, Seoul, Korea
¹³ National Centre for Nuclear Research, Otwock-Świerk, Poland
¹⁴ Institut für Strahlenphysik, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden, Germany
¹⁵ Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
¹⁶ National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, Moscow, Russia
¹⁷ Institute for Nuclear Physics and Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
¹⁸ Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien and Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
¹⁹ Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
²⁰ Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China

^* e-mail: p.gasik@tum.de

Received: 21 December 2015
Revised: 12 May 2016
Accepted: 17 May 2016
Published online: 28 June 2016

Abstract

The production of K⁺, K^- and $\phi$ (1020) mesons is studied in Al+Al collisions at a beam energy of 1.9A GeV which is close to or below the production threshold in NN reactions. Inverse slopes, anisotropy parameters, and total emission yields of K^± mesons are obtained. A comparison of the ratio of kinetic energy distributions of K^- and K⁺ mesons to the HSD transport model calculations suggests that the inclusion of the in-medium modifications of kaon properties is necessary to reproduce the ratio. The inverse slope and total yield of $\phi$ mesons are deduced. The contribution to K^- production from $\phi$ meson decays is found to be $[17 \pm 3(stat)^{+2}_{-7}(syst)]$ %. The results are in line with the previous K^± and $\phi$ data obtained for different colliding systems at similar incident beam energies.