Charged-K*(890)production at 13GeV/c

Abstract

We present high-statistics data on differential cross sections and density matrix elements for ${K}^{*\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}(890)$ production obtained in a 13-Gev/c SLAC experiment. The most remarkable features of the data are the dominance of natural-parity exchange and significant differences between ${K}^{*+}$ and ${K}^{*\ensuremath{-}}$ production by natural-parity isoscalar exchange. We present two exchange models which successfully describe this difference, as well as the overall $t$ dependence: model A including Pomeron plus strongly exchange-degenerate Regge poles and model B involving broken exchange degeneracy for the $f$ and $\ensuremath{\omega}$ exchanges. These two phenomenological models lead to different predictions for the energy dependence of ${K}^{*\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ production, for the relative $\frac{{K}^{*}(1420)}{{K}^{*}(890)}$ production rate, and for the SU(3)-related ${\ensuremath{\rho}}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ production processes.