Quark and diquark fragmentation into strange particles in π-p interactions at p = 40 GeV/c

Quark and diquark fragmentation into neutral kaons and Λ hyperons in soft hadron-hadron interactions is studied. The fragmentation functions (1/β)(dsigma/dx/sub E/) are analyzed. The results are compared to the analogous data on e+e- interactions. It is shown that in hadron-hadron collisions, in diquark fragmentation processes the function (1/β)(dsigma/dx/sub E/) displays scaling behavior for netural kaons and Λ hyperons in the momentum range 16--405 GeV/c within the experimental error. The x/sub E/ dependence of the functions describing the fragmentation of quarks and diquarks into neutral kaons and Λ hyperons in soft π-p and pp collisions has the same behavior as that in e+e- annihilation. The coefficients describing the suppression of strange s(s-bar) quark (lambda/sub s/) pickup and diquark (lambda/sub q/q) pickup from the sea are found to be lambda/sub s/approx. =0.17 and lambda/sub q/q = 0.14 +- 0.03. The results obtained indicate that quark and diquark fragmentation into strange particles in soft hadron-hadron collisions and in e+e- interactions is universal