Antikaon Production in Proton-Nucleus Reactions and the $K^-$ properties in nuclear matter

Abstract

We calculate the momentum-dependent potentials for $K^+$ and $K^-$ mesons in a dispersion approach at nuclear density $\rho_0$ using the information from the vacuum $K^+ N$ and $K^- N$ scattering amplitudes, however, leaving out the resonance contributions for the in-medium analysis. Whereas the $K^+$ potential is found to be repulsive ($\approx$ + 30 MeV) and to show only a moderate momentum dependence, the $K^-$ selfenergy at normal nuclear matter density turns out to be $\approx$ - 200 MeV at zero momentum in line with kaon atomic data, however, decreases rapidly in magnitude for higher momenta. The antikaon production in p + A reactions is calculated within a coupled transport approach and compared to the data at KEK including different assumptions for the antikaon potentials. Furthermore, detailed predictions are made for $p + ^{12}C$ and $p + ^{207}Pb$ reactions at 2.5 GeV in order to determine the momentum dependent antikaon potential experimentally.