Inclusive production of charged kaons in p+p collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum and a new evaluation of the energy dependence of kaon production up to collider energies

T. Anticic; B. Baatar; J. Bartke; L. Betev; H. Białkowska; B. Boimska; J. Bracinik; V. Cerny; O. Chvala; J. Dolejsi; V. Eckardt; H. G. Fischer; Z. Fodor; E. Gładysz; K. Kadija; A. Karev; V. Kolesnikov; M. Kowalski; M. Kreps; M. Makariev; A. Malakhov; M. Mateev; G. Melkumov; A. Rybicki; N. Schmitz; P. Seyboth; T. Susa; P. Szymanski; V. Trubnikov; D. Varga; G. Vesztergombi; S. Wenig

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-010-1328-0

2018 Impact factor 4.843

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2010) 68: 1-73
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-010-1328-0

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Inclusive production of charged kaons in p+p collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum and a new evaluation of the energy dependence of kaon production up to collider energies

The NA49 Collaboration
T. Anticic¹², B. Baatar⁵, J. Bartke⁴, L. Betev⁶, H. Białkowska¹¹, B. Boimska¹¹, J. Bracinik¹, V. Cerny¹, O. Chvala¹⁴^,8, J. Dolejsi⁸, V. Eckardt⁷, H. G. Fischer⁶, Z. Fodor³, E. Gładysz⁴, K. Kadija¹², A. Karev⁶, V. Kolesnikov⁵, M. Kowalski⁴, M. Kreps¹, M. Makariev¹⁰, A. Malakhov⁵, M. Mateev⁹, G. Melkumov⁵, A. Rybicki⁴, N. Schmitz⁷, P. Seyboth⁷, T. Susa¹², P. Szymanski¹¹, V. Trubnikov¹¹, D. Varga², G. Vesztergombi³ and S. Wenig⁶^*

¹ Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
² Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
³ KFKI Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Budapest, Hungary
⁴ H. Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow, Poland
⁵ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia
⁶ CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
⁷ Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, Munich, Germany
⁸ Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Institute of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
⁹ Atomic Physics Department, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria
¹⁰ Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria
¹¹ Institute for Nuclear Studies, Warsaw, Poland
¹² Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
¹³ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
¹⁴ UC Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
¹⁵ Institut für Experimentelle Kernphysik, Karlsruhe, Germany

^* e-mail: Siegfried.Wenig@cern.ch

Received: 28 January 2010
Revised: 9 April 2010
Published online: 11 June 2010

Abstract

New data on the production of charged kaons in p+p interactions are presented. The data come from a sample of 4.8 million inelastic events obtained with the NA49 detector at the CERN SPS at 158 GeV/c beam momentum. The kaons are identified by energy loss in a large TPC tracking system. Inclusive invariant cross sections are obtained in intervals from 0 to 1.7 GeV/c in transverse momentum and from 0 to 0.5 in Feynman x. Using these data as a reference, a new evaluation of the energy dependence of kaon production, including neutral kaons, is conducted over a range from 3 GeV to collider energies.