Neutral inclusive strange particle productions in π-n reactions at 11.6 GeV/c

Approximately 2700 one, three, five and seven prong neutral strange particle events have been inclusively analyzed. The data were from 130,000 triad exposures of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center 82-inch deuterium bubble chamber to a beam of 11.6 GeV/c π- mesons. The inclusive cross sections for Λ0, anti Λ0 and K0/sub s/ were determined to be .69 +- .02, .05 +- .01 and 1.11 +- .03 mb respectively. The average charge multiplicity for the events associated with neutral strange particle production was found to be 3.19 +- 0.6. The distributions of longitudinal and transverse momenta and production angles for Λ0, anti Λ0 and K0/sub s/ are presented. The average transverse momentum for Λ0, anti Λ0 and K0/sub s/ were found to be .45 +- .02, .41 +- .06 and .41 +- .01 GeV/c respectively. The inclusive distributions of cross sections in terms of Feynman's scaling variable, longitudinal momentum in C.M.S., longitudinal momentum in the laboratory system, rapidity and reduced rapidity are presented. It was found that Λ0's are peaked backward in the center of momentum system due to target fragmentation and K0s's are peaked in the forward direction in the center of momentum system due to beam fragmentation. The distributions of P2/sub T/ for Λ0, anti Λ0 and K0/sub s/ are presented and found to follow exponential relations. The values of the fitted slopes range from -3.99 to -5.44. The polarizations for Λ0 as functions of Feynman's scaling variable, charge prong number and t' = absolute value (t-t/sub min/ are presented and found to be predominantly negative. In studying resonance production, the data are consistent with the production of N*(1690) with subsequent decay into Λ0 + K0/sub s/ final state