paper

In-Medium Effects on K0 Mesons in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

arXiv:1004.3881 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.82.044907

Abstract

We present the transverse momentum spectra and rapidity distributions of $I ¨ ^{-}$ and K $_{S}^{0}$ in Ar+KCl reactions at a beam kinetic energy of 1.756 A GeV measured with the spectrometer HADES. The reconstructed K $_{S}^{0}$ sample is characterized by good event statistics for a wide range in momentum and rapidity. We compare the experimental $I ¨ ^{-}$ and K $_{S}^{0}$ distributions to predictions by the IQMD model. The model calculations show that K $_{S}^{0}$ at low tranverse momenta constitute a particularly well suited tool to investigate the kaon in-medium potential. Our K $_{S}^{0}$ data suggest a strong repulsive in-medium K $^{0}$ potential of about 40 MeV strength.

10 pages, 10 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. C