Abstract. The production of K + and of K − mesons in heavy-ion collisions at beam energies of 1 to 2 AGeV has systematically been investigated with the Kaon Spectrometer KaoS. 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. 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 and can be explained by the dominance of strangeness exchange. On the other hand the spectral slopes and the polar emission patterns are different for K − and for K + . Furthermore the azimuthal distribution of the particle emission has been investigated. K + mesons and pions are emitted preferentially perpendicular to the reaction plane as well in Au+Au as in Ni+Ni collisions. In contrast for K − mesons in Ni+Ni reactions an in-plane flow was observed for the first time at these incident enegies.
Differential production cross sections of K+/- mesons have been measured in p + C and p + Au collisions at 1.6, 2.5, and 3.5 GeV proton beam energy. At beam energies close to the production threshold, the K- multiplicity is strongly enhanced with respect to proton-proton collisions. According to microscopic transport calculations, this enhancement is caused by two effects: the strangeness exchange reaction NY --> K- NN and an attractive in-medium K- N potential at saturation density.
Azimuthal distributions of pi+, K+, and K- mesons have been measured in Au+Au reactions at 1.5A GeV and Ni+Ni reactions at 1.93 A GeV. In semicentral collisions at midrapidity, pi+ and K+ mesons are emitted preferentially perpendicular to the reaction plane in both collision systems. In contrast for K- mesons in Ni+Ni reactions, an in-plane elliptic flow was observed for the first time at these incident energies.
The emission of K + and π ± mesons has been studied in the asymmetric collision system Au+C and in the inverse reaction C+Au at 1.0A GeV (and at 1.8A GeV for C+Au only) in order to extract the effective source rapidities based on their distribution in the p t -y plane. The extracted source rapidity of K + mesons is about y s /y beam = 0.25 at both incident energies [y(Au) = 0, y(C) = y beam ]. This corresponds to a reaction volume consisting of the C nucleus and a tube cut out of the Au nucleus. In clear contrast, the source rapidities of π ± mesons vary from y s /y beam = 0.5 in peripheral collisions (corresponding to NN interactions) to about y s /y beam < 0.33 in central reactions. The multiplicities of K + and π are compared to symmetric collision systems and, together with detailed transport model calculations, are used to study the sensitivity to the nuclear equation of state.A. SCHMAH et al. PHYSICAL REVIEW C 71, 064907 (2005)
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