Partial wave analysis of the reaction p(3.5 GeV)+p→pK+Λ to search for the “ppK−” bound state

• Published in: Physics letters. B Vol. 742; no. C; pp. 242 - 248
• Main Authors: Agakishiev, G., Arnold, O., Belver, D., Belyaev, A., Berger-Chen, J.C., Blanco, A., Böhmer, M., Boyard, J.L., Cabanelas, P., Chernenko, S., Dybczak, A., Epple, E., Fabbietti, L., Fateev, O., Finocchiaro, P., Fonte, P., Friese, J., Fröhlich, I., Galatyuk, T., Garzón, J.A., Gernhäuser, R., Göbel, K., Golubeva, M., González-Díaz, D., Guber, F., Gumberidze, M., Heinz, T., Hennino, T., Holzmann, R., Ierusalimov, A., Iori, I., Ivashkin, A., Jurkovic, M., Kämpfer, B., Karavicheva, T., Koenig, I., Koenig, W., Kolb, B.W., Kornakov, G., Kotte, R., Krása, A., Krizek, F., Krücken, R., Kuc, H., Kühn, W., Kugler, A., Kunz, T., Kurepin, A., Ladygin, V., Lalik, R., Lapidus, K., Lebedev, A., Lopes, L., Lorenz, M., Maier, L., Mangiarotti, A., Markert, J., Metag, V., Michel, J., Müntz, C., Münzer, R., Naumann, L., Pachmayer, Y.C., Palka, M., Parpottas, Y., Pechenov, V., Pechenova, O., Pietraszko, J., Przygoda, W., Ramstein, B., Reshetin, A., Rustamov, A., Sadovsky, A., Salabura, P., Schmah, A., Schwab, E., Siebenson, J., Sobolev, Yu.G., Spataro, S., Spruck, B., Ströbele, H., Stroth, J., Sturm, C., Tarantola, A., Teilab, K., Tlusty, P., Traxler, M., Tsertos, H., Vasiliev, T., Wagner, V., Weber, M., Wendisch, C., Wüstenfeld, J., Yurevich, S., Zanevsky, Y., Sarantsev, A.V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier B.V 06.03.2015; Elsevier
• Subjects: Anti-kaon–nucleon physics; formula omitted; Kaonic nuclei; Low energy QCD; Nuclear Experiment; Partial wave analysis; Physics; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; ppK; Anti-kaon–nucleon physics; Kaonic nuclei; Partial wave analysis; ppK; Low energy QCD
• ISSN: 0370-2693; 1873-2445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2015.01.032

Employing the Bonn–Gatchina partial wave analysis framework (PWA), we have analyzed HADES data of the reaction p(3.5 GeV)+p→pK+Λ. This reaction might contain information about the kaonic cluster “ppK−” (with quantum numbers JP=0− and total isospin I=1/2) via its decay into pΛ. Due to interference effects in our coherent description of the data, a hypothetical K‾NN (or, specifically “ppK−”) cluster signal need not necessarily show up as a pronounced feature (e.g. a peak) in an invariant mass spectrum like pΛ. Our PWA analysis includes a variety of resonant and non-resonant intermediate states and delivers a good description of our data (various angular distributions and two-hadron invariant mass spectra) without a contribution of a K‾NN cluster. At a confidence level of CLs=95% such a cluster cannot contribute more than 2–12% to the total cross section with a pK+Λ final state, which translates into a production cross-section between 0.7 μb and 4.2 μb, respectively. The range of the upper limit depends on the assumed cluster mass, width and production process.