Low energy kaon photoproduction from nuclei

Abstract

We study $K^+$-meson production in $\gamma{A}$ interaction at energies below the reaction threshold in free space. The Thomas-Fermi and spectral function approaches are used for the calculations of the production process. It is found that the measurement of the differential spectra may allow to reconstruct the production mechanism and to investigate the dispersion relations entering the production vertex. It is shown that the contribution from secondary pion induced reactions to the total kaon photoproduction is negligible for $E_\gamma{<}$1.2 GeV so that strangeness production at low energies is sensitive to the nuclear spectral function.Comment: 20 pages, espcrc1, including 12 figures, to appear in Nucl. Phys.