Photoproduction of $K^+K^-$ meson pairs on the proton

S. Lombardo , M. Battaglieri , A. Celentano , A. d'Angelo , R. de Vita , A. Filippi , D.I. Glazier , S.M. Hughes , V. Mathieu , A. Rizzo , E. Santopinto , I. Stankovic , A.P. Szczepaniak , D. Watts , L. Zana , S. Adhikari , Z. Akbar , H. Avakian , J. Ball (1) , N.A. Baltzell , L. Barion , M. Bashkanov , V. Batourine , I. Bedlinskiy , A.S. Biselli , S. Boiarinov , W.J. Briscoe , V.D. Burkert , F. Cao , D.S. Carman , P. Chatagnon (2) , T. Chetry , G. Ciullo , L. Clark , B.A. Clary , P.L. Cole , M. Contalbrigo , V. Crede , N. Dashyan , E. de Sanctis , M. Defurne (1) , A. Deur , S. Diehl , C. Djalali , M. Dugger , R. Dupre (2) , H. Egiyan , M. Ehrhart (2) , A. El Alaoui , L. El Fassi , P. Eugenio , G. Fedotov , G. Gavalian , Y. Ghandilyan , G.P. Gilfoyle , K.L. Giovanetti , F.X. Girod (1) , E. Golovatch , R.W. Gothe , K.A. Griffioen , M. Guidal (1) , L. Guo , K. Hafidi , H. Hakobyan , N. Harrison , M. Hattawy , D. Heddle , K. Hicks , M. Holtrop , Y. Ilieva , D.G. Ireland , B.S. Ishkhanov , E.L. Isupov , D. Jenkins , H.S. Jo (2) , S. Johnston , K. Joo , M.L. Kabir , D. Keller , G. Khachatryan , M. Khachatryan , M. Khandaker , A. Kim , W. Kim , A. Klein , F.J. Klein , V. Kubarovsky , L. Lanza , P. Lenisa , K. Livingston , I..J .D. Macgregor , D. Marchand (2) , N. Markov , B. Mckinnon , M.D. Mestayer , C.A. Meyer , Z.E. Meziani , M. Mirazita , V. Mokeev , R.A. Montgomery , C. Munoz Camacho (2) , P. Nadel-Turonski , S. Niccolai (2) , G. Niculescu , M. Osipenko , A.I. Ostrovidov , M. Paolone , R. Paremuzyan , K. Park , E. Pasyuk , O. Pogorelko , J.W. Price , Y. Prok , D. Protopopescu , M. Ripani , D. Riser , B.G. Ritchie , G. Rosner , F. Sabatié (1) , C. Salgado , R.A. Schumacher , Y.G. Sharabian , Iu. Skorodumina , G.D. Smith , D.I. Sober , D. Sokhan , N. Sparveris , I.I. Strakovsky , S. Strauch , M. Taiuti , J.A. Tan , M. Ungaro , H. Voskanyan , E. Voutier (2) , R. Wang (2) , X. Wei , M.H. Wood , N. Zachariou , J. Zhang , Z.W. Zhao

1 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
2 IPNO - Institut de Physique Nucléaire d'Orsay

The exclusive reaction γp→pK+K- was studied in the photon energy range 3.0–3.8  GeV and momentum transfer range 0.6<-t<1.3  GeV2. Data were collected with the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. In this kinematic range the integrated luminosity was approximately 20  pb-1. The reaction was isolated by detecting the K+ and the proton in CLAS, and reconstructing the K- via the missing-mass technique. Moments of the dikaon decay angular distributions were extracted from the experimental data. Besides the dominant contribution of the ϕ meson in the P wave, evidence for S-P interference was found. The differential production cross sections dσ/dt for individual waves in the mass range of the ϕ resonance were extracted and compared to predictions of a Regge-inspired model. This is the first time the t-dependent cross section of the S-wave contribution to the elastic K+K- photoproduction has been measured.

Mots clés: Particle Physics Experiments; photon p: inelastic scattering; photon p: exclusive reaction; K: pair production; photon: energy; momentum transfer; K: photoproduction; mass spectrum: (K+ K-); mass spectrum: (K+ p); angular distribution; partial wave analysis; amplitude analysis; differential cross section: measured; CLAS; Jefferson Lab; statistical analysis; experimental results; photon p --> K+ K- p

Domaines: Physique des Hautes Energies - Expérience [hep-ex]

S. Lombardo, M. Battaglieri, A. Celentano, A. d'Angelo, R. de Vita, et al.. Photoproduction of $K^+K^-$ meson pairs on the proton. Physical Review D, 2018, 98 (5), pp.052009. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevD.98.052009⟩. ⟨hal-01861875⟩