Subthreshold and near threshold K+ meson photoproduction on nuclei

Abstract

This chapter extends the spectral function approach that has been employed for the description of the measured total and differential kaon production cross sections from pA collisions in the near threshold and subthreshold energy regimes to K+-producing electromagnetic processes, as well as to study the role played by nucleon-nucleon correlations in these processes. The predictions for the K+ total and differential cross sections from γ+ C12 and γ+ Pb208 reactions in the threshold energy region obtained in the framework of the first collision model based on nucleon spectral function, and compare part of them with the available data. The results demonstrate that it is difficult to distinguish the contribution to K+ production in γA reactions from the high momentum and high removal energy part of the nucleon spectral function which is generated by ground-state two-nucleon short range correlations inside the target nucleus with the measurements of the K+ total and differential cross sections at subthreshold photon energies.