Diffraction dissociation of K-→anti K3π and p→N3π in the reactions K-p→Nanti K3π at 10 and 16 GeV/c

The reactions K-p→anti KN3π are studied at 10 and 16 GeV/c. Evidence is presented for the diffractive dissociation processes K-→anti K3π and p→N3π, based on the observation, in the reactions involving no exchange of charge, of threshold enhancements in the anti K3π and N3π mass spectra with cross sections weakly dependent on energy. In the charge exchange reactions, the anti K3π and N3π spectra increase smoothly from theshold, and their energy dependence is strong. The most important decay channels contributing to the K-→anti K3π diffractive systems are anti Kω, anti K*sub(1420)π and the two-resonance channel anti K*sub(890)rho. For p→N3π, major decay channels are pω and Δππ. For a fixed mass, it is found that the slopes of the dsigma/dt' distributions are approximately the same as those observed for diffractive dissociation into lower multiplicities. (Auth.)