Review of the results of the KaoS Collaboration

Authors:
  • AFA Förster
    A Förster
  • TCthe KaoS Collaboration
    the KaoS Collaboration
  • IBI Böttcher
    I Böttcher
  • FDF Dohrmann
    F Dohrmann
  • EGE Grosse
    E Grosse
  • PKP Koczoń
    P Koczoń
  • BKB Kohlmeyer
    B Kohlmeyer
  • SLS Lang
    S Lang
  • FLF Laue
    F Laue
  • MMM Menzel
    M Menzel
  • LNL Naumann
    L Naumann
  • HOH Oeschler
    H Oeschler
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Abstract
The production of K+ and of K- mesons in heavy-ion collisions at beam energies of 1 to 2 AGeV has systematically been investigated with the Kaon Spectrometer KaoS. The ratio of the K+ production excitation function for Au+Au and for C+C reactions increases with decreasing beam energy, which is expected for a soft nuclear equation-of-state. A comprehensive study of the K+ and of the K- emission as a function of the size of the collision system, of the collision centrality, of the kaon energy, and of the polar emission angle has been performed. The K-/K+ ratio is found to be nearly constant as a function of the collision centrality and can be explained by the dominance of strangeness exchange. On the other hand the spectral slopes and the polar emission patterns are different for K- and for K+. Furthermore the azimuthal distribution of the particle emission has been investigated. K+ mesons and pions are emitted preferentially perpendicular to the reaction plane as well in Au+Au as in Ni+Ni collisions. In contrast for K- mesons in Ni+Ni reactions an in-plane flow was observed for the first time at these incident enegies.

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