Strangeness production in deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering at HERA

• Published in: Nuclear physics. B 1996-11, Vol.480 (1), p.3-34
• Main Authors: Anderson, M., Babaev, A., Bán, J., Bartel, W., Barth, M., Bernardi, G., Biddulph, P., Bizot, J.C., Botterweck, F., Bruel, P., Bürger, J., Büsser, F.W., Burton, M.J., Clegg, A.B., Courau, A., Cozzika, G., Criegee, L., Cussans, D.G., Dagoret, S., Dainton, J.B., David, M., Delcourt, B., Dirkmann, M., Dlugosz, W., Dollfus, C., Dreis, H.B., Dünger, O., Ebert, J., Elsen, E., Ferencei, J., Gabathuler, E., Gaede, F., Garvey, J., Gayler, J., Golec-Biernat, K., Grab, C., Griffiths, R.K., Haack, J., Hampel, M., Hilton, C.D., Höppner, M., Hoffmann, D., Jönsson, L., Kaschowitz, R., Katzy, J., Kaufmann, O., Keuker, C., Kiesling, C., Klein, M., Kleinwort, C., Korbel, V., Kostka, P., Krasny, M.W., Kurzhöfer, J., Lindstroem, M., Link, J., Lomas, J.W., Magnussen, N., Mani, S., Marage, P., Marks, J., Martin, G., Martyn, H.-U., Martyniak, J., McMahon, S.J., Meyer, J., Mikocki, S., Morris, J.V., Naumann, Th, Newman, P.R., Niebuhr, C., Nowak, G., Oakden, M., Ozerov, D., Panaro, E., Pascaud, C., Prell, S., Rick, H., Rizvi, E., Rouse, F., Sankey, D.P.C., von Schlippe, W., Schmidt, G., Skillicorn, I.O., Steinhart, J., Stella, B., Straumann, U., Tchetchelnitski, S., Tsipolitis, G., Turnau, J., Tutas, J., Usik, A., Van Esch, P., Van Mechelen, P., Wagener, A., Walther, A., Wegner, A., Winter, G.-G., Žáček, J., Zhokin, A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Deep inelastic scattering; High Energy Physics - Experiment; Physics; Strangeness production
• ISSN: 0550-3213; 1873-1562
• DOI: 10.1016/S0550-3213(96)00503-2

Measurements of K 0 meson and Λ baryon production in deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering (DIS) are presented in the kinematic range 10 < Q 2 < 70 GeV 2 and 10 −4 < x < 10 −2. The measurements, obtained using the H1 detector at the HEPA collider, are discussed in the light of possible mechanisms for increased strangeness production at low Bjorken- x. Comparisons of the x F spectra, where x F is the fractional longitudinal momentum in the hadronic centre-of-mass frame, are made with results from electron-positron annihilation. The x F spectra and the K 0 “seagull” plot are compared with previous DIS results. The mean K 0 and Λ multiplicities are studied as a function of the centre-of-mass energy W and are observed to be consistent with a logarithmic increase with W when compared with previous measurements. A comparison of strangeness production in diffractive and non-diffractive DIS is made. An upper limit of 0.9 nb, at the 95% confidence level, is placed on the cross section for QCD instanton induced events.