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Radial flow of kaon mesons in heavy ion reactions

Z. S. Wang, Amand Faessler, C. Fuchs, V. S. Uma Maheswari, T. Waindzoch

nucl-tharXiv:nucl-th/9804046

Abstract

This work investigates the collective motion of kaons in heavy ion reactions at SIS energies (about 1-2 GeV/nucleon). A radial collective flow of K+ mesons is predicted to exist in central Au + Au collisions, which manifests in a characteristic "shoulder-arm" shape of the transverse mass spectrum of the midrapidity K+ mesons. The K+ radial flow arises from the repulsive K+ mean field in nuclear matter. In spite of a strong reabsorption and rescattering the attractive K- mean field leads as well to a collective radial flow of K- mesons. The K- radial flow, however, is different from that of K+ mesons and can be observed by a characteristic "concave" structure of the transverse mass spectrum of the K- mesons emitted at midrapidity. The kaon radial flows can therefore serve as a novel tool for the investigation of kaon properties in dense nuclear matter.

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