Contribution of the nucleon-hyperon reaction channels to K−^- production in proton-nucleus collisions

The cross sections for producing K$^-$ mesons in nucleon-hyperon elementary processes are estimated assuming one-pion exchange and using the experimentally known pion-hyperon cross sections. The results are implemented in a transport model which is applied to calculation of proton-nucleus collisions. In significant difference to earlier estimates for heavy-ion collisions the inclusion of the nucleon-hyperon cross section roughly doubles the K$^-$ production in near-threshold proton-nucleus collisions

Kaon and Antikaon Production in Heavy Ion Collisions at 1.5 AGeV

At the Kaon Spectrometer KaoS at SIS, GSI the production of kaons and antikaons in heavy ion reactions at a beam energy of 1.5 AGeV has been measured for the collision systems Ni+Ni and Au+Au. The K-/K+ ratio is found to be constant for both systems and as a function of impact parameter but the slopes of K+ and K- spectra differ for all impact parameters. Furthermore the respective polar angle distributions will be presented as a function of centrality.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, SQM2001 in Frankfurt, Sept.2001, submitted to Journal of Physics

New method of studying slow strange meson properties in nuclear matter

We suggest the new experimental method to explore the properties of slow strange mesons at normal nuclear matter density. We show that the $K^{+}$ and $K^{-}$ mesons with extremely small momenta relative to the surrounding medium rest frame can be produced in nucleus-nucleon collisions and their production cross sections are experimentally measurable. The experiments on study of the momentum dependence of meson-nuclear potentials are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

K+ and K- production in heavy-ion collisions at SIS-energies

The production and the propagation of K+ and of K- mesons in heavy-ion collisions at beam energies of 1 to 2 AGeV have systematically been investigated with the Kaon Spectrometer KaoS at the SIS at the GSI. The ratio of the K+ production excitation function for Au+Au and for C+C reactions increases with decreasing beam energy, which is expected for a soft nuclear equation-of-state. At 1.5 AGeV a comprehensive study of the K+ and of the K- emission as a function of the size of the collision system, of the collision centrality, of the kaon energy, and of the polar emission angle has been performed. The K-/K+ ratio is found to be nearly constant as a function of the collision centrality. The spectral slopes and the polar emission patterns are different for K- and for K+. These observations indicate that K+ mesons decouple earlier from the reaction zone than K- mesons.Comment: invited talk given at the SQM2003 conference in Atlantic Beach, USA (March 2003), to be published in Journal of Physics G, 10pages, 7 figure

Far-infrared study of the Jahn-Teller distorted C60 monoanion in C60 tetraphenylphosphoniumiodide

We report high-resolution far-infrared transmission measurements on C(60)-tetraphenylphosphoniumiodide as a function of temperature. In the spectral region investigated (20-650 cm(-1)), we assign intramolecular modes of the C(60) monoanion and identify low-frequency combination modes. The well-known F(1u)(1) and F(1u)(2) modes are split into doublers at room temperature, indicating a D(5d) or D(3d) distorted ball. This result is consistent with a dynamic Jahn-Teller effect in the strong-coupling limit or with a static distortion stabilized by low-symmetry perturbations. The appearance of silent odd modes is in keeping with symmetry reduction of the hall, while activation of even modes is attributed to interband electron-phonon coupling and orientational disorder in the fulleride salt. Temperature dependences reveal a weak transition in the region 125-150 K in both C(60)(-) and counterion modes, indicating a bulk, rather than solely molecular, effect. Anomalous softening (with decreasing temperature) in several modes may correlate with the radial character of those vibrations. [S0163-1829(98)03245-7]

Antikaon production in A+A collisions at SIS energies within an off-shell G-matrix approach

The production and propagation of antikaons -- described by dynamical spectral functions $A_h(X,\vec{P},M^2)$ as evaluated from a coupled channel $G$-matrix approach -- is studied for nucleus-nucleus collisions at SIS energies in comparison to the conventional quasi-particle limit and the available experimental data using off-shell transport theory. We find that the $K^-$ spectra for $^{12}C + ^{12}C$ and $^{58}Ni + ^{58}Ni$ at 1.8 A$\cdot$GeV remain underestimated in the $G$-matrix approach as in the on-shell quasi-particle approximation whereas the preliminary spectra for $Au + Au$ at 1.5 A$\cdot$GeV are well described in both limits. This also holds approximately for the $K^-$ rapidity distributions in semi-central collisions of $Ni+Ni$ at 1.93 A$\cdot$GeV. However, in all limits considered there is no convincing description of all spectra simultaneously. Our off-shell transport calculations, furthermore, demonstrate that the strongest in-medium effects should be found for low antikaon momenta in the center-of-mass frame, since the deceleration of the antikaons in the attractive Coulomb and nuclear potentials and the propagation to the on-shell mass induces a net shift and squeezing of the $K^-$ spectra to the low momentum regime.Comment: 44 pages, including 18 eps figures, to be published in Nucl. Phys.