S = −1 dibaryon production with kaon beams

Abstract

Production cross sections for strangeness S = −1 six-quark dibaryon states D s,t in the (K −, π ±) reactions on deuterium and 3He targets have been estimated. For the lowest-lying configurations (mass range 2100–2200 MeV in the MIT bag model) of quark structure Q 4 − Q 2, namely 1P 1 and 3P J , peak differential cross sections of order 1 μb/sr are predicted. The angular distributions are peaked in the region of 20° ⩽ θ ⩽ 30°, characteristic of angular momentum transfer ΔL = 1. We evaluate the prospects for detecting a dibaryon signal in the presence of background processes such as d( K −, π −) YN or 3 He( K −, π +)Σ − pn .