Production of φ mesons in Si+A collisions at 14.6 A ⋅ GeV/c

Abstract

E859 has measured φ‐meson production in Si+Au and Si+Al collisions at the BNL‐AGS by selecting events with K+K− pairs. The mass and width of the φ obtained from the invariant mass of the kaon pairs are consistent with those of free φ mesons. The transverse mass and rapidity distributions are presented for Si+Au collisions. The production of φ mesons in Si+Al collisions is compared to the data from Si+Au collisions. It is found that the production of the φ follows the same power law as kaons for different targets.