Medium effects on subthreshold kaon production in heavy-ion collisions.

Abstract

The relativistic transport model is extended to include the kaon degree of freedom. We also take into account the density dependence of the kaon effective mass in nuclear matter and the rescattering of kaons by nucleons. We find that the inclusion of kaon self-energy due to the attractive scalar mean field leads to an enhanced kaon yield in heavy-ion collisions at subthreshold energies. Also, kaon rescatterings are found to affect significantly the final kaon momentum spectra. We compare the theoretical results with recent experimental data from the Heavy-Ion Synchrotron (SIS) at GSI.