Spin and isospin effects in the NN → NKΛ reaction near threshold

Abstract

The spin and isospin structure of the amplitudes and observables for K+Λ production in nucleon-nucleon collisions in the near-threshold region is analysed. Five experiments are required in order to isolate the amplitudes, up to an overall phase and two discrete ambiguities, in a model-independent way. It is shown that, with reasonable values for the relative strengths of the π and ρ terms in a meson-exchange model, one expects production on the neutron to be significantly stronger than that on the proton. Negative values of the spin-transfer coefficient DNN are also predicted due to π-ρ interference.