KS0 meson production in inelastic p+p interactions at 31, 40 and 80 GeV/c beam momentum measured by NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS

Abstract

The yields of $K_S^0$ mesons have been measured in inelastic p+p interactions at incident projectile momenta of 31, 40 and 80 $\text{Ge}\text{V}/c$ ($\sqrt{s_{\mathit{NN}}}=7.7,8.8$ and 12.3 $\text{Ge}\text{V}$, respectively). The data were recorded by the NA61$/$SHINE spectrometer at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron and the $K_S^0$ mesons identified via their decays into ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ pairs. Double-differential distributions are presented as function of transverse momentum and rapidity. The mean multiplicities of $K_S^0$ mesons were determined to be $(5.95\pm 0.19(stat)\pm 0.30(sys))\times {10}^{-2}$ at 31 $\text{Ge}\text{V}/c$, $(7.61\pm 0.13(stat)\pm 0.43(sys))\times {10}^{-2}$ at 40 $\text{Ge}\text{V}/c$ and $(11.58\pm 0.12(stat)\pm 0.55(sys))\times {10}^{-2}$ at 80 $\text{Ge}\text{V}/c$. The results on $K_S^0$ production are compared with the production of charged kaons in corresponding reactions and with model calculations (Epos1.99, SMASH 2.0 and PHSD) as well as with published data from other experiments.