The (K-, p) reaction on nuclei with in-flight kaons

Abstract

We perform a theoretical study of the spectrum of protons with kinetic energies of around 600 MeV, emitted following the interaction of 1 GeV/c kaons with nuclei. A recent experimental analysis of this (K-, p) reaction on C-12, based on the dominant quasielastic process, has suggested a deeply attractive kaon nucleus potential. Our Monte Carlo simulation considers, in addition, the one-and two-nucleon K- absorption processes producing hyperons that decay into pi N pairs. We find that this kaon in-flight reaction is not well suited to determine the kaon optical potential due, essentially, to the limited sensitivity of the cross section to its strength, and also to unavoidable uncertainties from the coincidence requirement applied in the experiment. A shallow kaon nucleus optical potential obtained in chiral models is perfectly compatible with the observed spectrum.