Meson production in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:6125942

Schnetzer, S R

We have measured the inclusive kappa/sup +/ production cross sections at angles from 15/sup 0/ to 80/sup 0/ in collisions of protons (2.1 GeV) and deuterons (2.1 GeV/amu) on NaF and Pb, and Ne (2.1 GeV/amu) on C, NaF, KCi, Cu, and Pb. The kaons were identified by measuring the time of flight and the momentum in a magnetic spectrometer, and by detecting the particles from the kaon decays in a Pb glass Cerenkov counter. The momentum range of the detected kaons extended from 350 MeV/c to 750 MeV/c. The multiplicity of each event was measured by a set of scintillation counter telescopes which were situated around the target. The differential cross section of the kaons falls off exponentially with center of mass frame. In addition, the angular distribution of the kaons is nearly isotropic in this frame even for p/sup 1/ NaF and Ne/sup 1/ Pb collisions. The data are compared with a row on row model and a thermal model. Neither are able to explain all features of the data. The row on row model does not reproduce the near isotropy in the nucleon nucleon frame, and the thermal model overpredicts the kaon yield by a factor of approximately twenty. Analysis of the A dependence shows that the increase in the cross section for kaon production between Ne/sup 1/ NaF and Ne/sup 1/ Pb collisions is greater than that between d/sup 1/ Naf and d/sup 1/ Pb. This may be an indication of a collective effect. In Ne/sup 1/ Pb collisions the associated multiplicity is approximately 10% higher when a kaon is detected in the spectrometer than when a proton or pion is detected. This indicates that the kaons may come from more central collisions.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Berkeley (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6125942
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645101* -- High Energy Physics-- Particle Interactions & Properties-Experimental-- Electromagnetic Interactions & Properties
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ALKALI METALS
ATOMIC NUMBER
BARYON REACTIONS
BOSONS
CARBON
CHARGED-PARTICLE REACTIONS
CHLORINE
COPPER
CROSS SECTIONS
DATA
DEUTERON REACTIONS
DIFFERENTIAL CROSS SECTIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY RANGE
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUORINE
GEV RANGE
GEV RANGE 01-10
HADRON REACTIONS
HADRONS
HALOGENS
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
INFORMATION
KAONS
KAONS PLUS
LEAD
MESONS
METALS
MULTIPLICITY
NEON 20 REACTIONS
NONMETALS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
NUCLEON REACTIONS
NUMERICAL DATA
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
POTASSIUM
PROTON REACTIONS
PSEUDOSCALAR MESONS
SODIUM
STRANGE PARTICLES
TRANSITION ELEMENTS