Kaon photoproduction with form factors in a gauge-invariant approach

Abstract

The general gauge-invariant photoproduction formalism given by Haberzettl is applied to kaon photoproduction off the nucleon at the tree level, with form factors describing composite nucleons. We demonstrate that, in contrast to Ohta's gauge-invariance prescription, this formalism allows electric current contributions to be multiplied by a form factor, i.e., they do not need to be treated like bare currents. Numerical results show that Haberzettl's gauge procedure, when compared to Ohta's, leads to much improved $\chi^2$ values. Moreover, predictions for the new Bonn SAPHIR data for $p(\gamma,K^+)\Lambda$ are given.