Near-threshold \(K^(892)^+\) meson production in the interaction of \(\pi^-\) mesons with nuclei

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Author: E Ya Paryev
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 16.07.2020
• Subjects: Laboratories; Momentum; Nuclei (nuclear physics); Particle production; Pion beams; Pions; Tungsten; Vector mesons
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2007.10192

We study the inclusive strange vector meson \(K^*(892)^+\) production in \({\pi^-}A\) reactions at near-threshold laboratory incident pion momenta of 1.4--2.0 GeV/c within a nuclear spectral function approach. The approach accounts for incoherent primary \(\pi^-\) meson--proton \({\pi^-}p \to {K^*(892)^+}\Sigma^-\) production processes as well as the influence of the scalar \(K^*(892)^+\)--nucleus potential (or the \(K^*(892)^+\) in-medium mass shift) on these processes. We calculate the absolute differential and total cross sections for the production of \(K^*(892)^+\) mesons off carbon and tungsten nuclei at laboratory angles of 0\(^{\circ}\)--45\(^{\circ}\) and at these momenta within five scenarios for the above shift. We show that the \(K^*(892)^+\) momentum distributions and their excitation functions (absolute and relative) possess a high sensitivity to changes in the in-medium \(K^*(892)^+\) mass shift in the low-momentum region of 0.1--0.6 GeV/c. Therefore, the measurement of such observables in a dedicated experiment at the GSI pion beam facility in the near-threshold momentum domain will allow to get valuable information on the \(K^*(892)^+\) in-medium properties.