Deep sub-threshold K*(892)0 production in collisions of Ar + KCl at 1.76 A GeV

Agakishiev, G.; Balanda, A.; Bassini, R.; Belver, D.; Belyaev, A. V.; Blanco, A.; Böhmer, M.; Boyard, J. L.; Cabanelas, P.; Castro, E.; Chernenko, S.; Christ, T.; Destefanis, MARCO GIOVANNI; Díaz, J.; Dohrmann, F.; Dybczak, A.; Eberl, T.; Epple, E.; Fabbietti, L.; Fateev, O. V.; Finocchiaro, P.; Fonte, P.; Friese, J.; Fröhlich, I.; Galatyuk, T.; Garzón, J. A.; Gernhäuser, R.; Gil, A.; Gilardi, C.; Golubeva, M.; González Díaz, D.; Guber, F.; Gumberidze, M.; Heilmann, M.; Heinz, T.; Hennino, T.; Holzmann, R.; Huck, P.; Iori, I.; Ivashkin, A.; Jurkovic, M.; Kämpfer, B.; Kanaki, K.; Karavicheva, T.; Kirschner, D.; Koenig, I.; Koenig, W.; Kolb, B. W.; Kotte, R.; Krizek, F.; Krücken, R.; Kühn, W.; Kugler, A.; Kurepin, A.; Lang, S.; Lange, J. S.; Lapidus, K.; Liu, T.; Lopes, L.; Lorenz, M.; Maier, L.; Mangiarotti, A.; Markert, J.; Metag, V.; Michalska, B.; Michel, J.; Mishra, D.; Morinière, E.; Mousa, J.; Müntz, C.; Naumann, L.; Otwinowski, J.; Pachmayer, Y. C.; Palka, M.; Parpottas, Y.; Pechenov, V.; Pechenova, O.; Pérez Cavalcanti, T.; Pietraszko, J.; Przygoda, W.; Ramstein, B.; Reshetin, A.; Roy Stephan, M.; Rustamov, A.; Sadovsky, A.; Sailer, B.; Salabura, P.; Schmah, A.; Schwab, E.; Siebenson, J.; Sobolev, Y. u. G.; Spataro, STEFANO GIOVANNI; Spruck, B.; Ströbele, H.; Stroth, J.; Sturm, C.; Tarantola, A.; Teilab, K.; Tlusty, P.; Traxler, M.; Trebacz, R.; Tsertos, H.; Wagner, V.; Weber, M.; Wendisch, C.; Wisniowski, M.; Wojcik, T.; Wüstenfeld, J.; Yurevich, S.; Zanevsky, Y. V.; Zumbruch, P.

doi:10.1140/epja/i2013-13034-7

Results on the deep sub-threshold production of the short-lived hadronic resonance K∗(892)0 are reported for collisions of Ar + KCl at 1.76 A GeV beam energy, studied with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at SIS18/GSI. The K∗(892)0 production probability per central collision of P_K∗0 =(4.4±1.1±0.5)×10^−4 and the K∗(892)0/K0 ratio of P_K∗0/P_K0 =(1.9±0.5±0.3)×10^−2 are determined at the lowest energy so far (i.e. deep below the threshold for the corresponding production in nucleon-nucleon collisions, √s_NN−√s_thr = −340 MeV). The K∗0/K0 ratio is compared with results of other experiments and with the predictions of the UrQMD transport approach and of the statistical hadronization model. The experimental K∗0 yield and the K∗0/K0 ratio are overestimated by the transport model by factors of about five and two, respectively. In a chemically equilibrated medium the ratio corresponds to a temperature of the thermalized system being systematically lower than the value determined by the yields of the stable and long-lived hadrons produced in Ar + KCl collisions. From the present measurement, we conclude that sub-threshold K∗ production either cannot be considered to proceed in a system being in thermal equilibrium or these short-lived resonances appear undersaturated, for example as a result of the rescattering of the decay particles in the ambient hadronic medium.