Role of phi decays for K- yields in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

The production of strange mesons in collisions of Ar+KCl at a kinetic beam energy of 1.756 AGeV is studied within a transport model of Boltzmann-Ühling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) type. In particular, $\varphi ,K^{+}$ and $K^{-}$ yields and spectra are compared to the data mesured recently by the HADES collaboration and the $\varphi$ yield measured previously by the FOPI collaboration. Our results are in agreement with these data thus presenting an interpretation of the subleading role of $\varphi$ decays into $K^{-}$'s and confirming the importance of the strangeness-exchange channels for $K^{-}$ production.

Comments: 24 pages, 19 figures