Cascade production from antikaon induced reactions on lambda and sigma

Using a gauged flavor SU(3)-invariant hadronic Lagrangian, we study Ξ production from Kbar induced reactions on Λ and Σ in a coupled-channel approach. Including the four channels of KbarΛ, KbarΣ, πΞ, and ηΞ, we solve the Bethe-Salpeter equation in the K-matrix approximation by neglecting the off-shell contribution in the intermediate states. For the transition potential which drives the higher-order contribution, we consider all allowed Born diagrams in the s, t, and u channels. With coupling constants determined from the SU(3) symmetry using empirical input, we find that the cross sections for the reactions KbarΛ→πΞ, KbarΣ→πΞ, KbarΛ→ηΞ, and KbarΣ→ηΞ all have values of a few mb. In contrast to the results from the lowest-order Born approximation, the magnitude of these cross sections is less sensitive to the values of the cut-off parameters in the form factors. From the transition matrix in the coupled-channel approach, we have further evaluated the cross sections for the elastic process KbarΛ→KbarΛ, KbarΣ→KbarΣ, πΞ→πΞ, and ηΞ→ηΞ as well as for the inelastic processes KbarΛ→KbarΣ and πΞ→ηΞ. Implications of the reactions studied here in Ξ production from relativistic heavy ion collisions are discussed