Photoproduction of K+K- Pairs in Ultraperipheral Collisions

Abstract

K + K − pairs may be produced in photonuclear collisions, either from the decays of photoproduced ϕ ( 1020 ) mesons or directly as nonresonant K + K − pairs. Measurements of K + K − photoproduction probe the couplings between the ϕ ( 1020 ) and charged kaons with photons and nuclear targets. The kaon-proton scattering occurs at energies far above those available elsewhere. We present the first measurement of coherent photoproduction of K + K − pairs on lead ions in ultraperipheral collisions using the ALICE detector, including the first investigation of direct K + K − production. There is significant K + K − production at low transverse momentum, consistent with coherent photoproduction on lead targets. In the mass range 1.1 M K K 1.4 GeV / c 2 above the ϕ ( 1020 ) resonance, for rapidity | y K K | 0.8 and p T , K K 0.1 GeV / c , the measured coherent photoproduction cross section is d σ / d y = 3.37 ± 0.61 ( stat ) ± 0.15 ( syst ) mb . The center-of-mass energy per nucleon of the photon-nucleus (Pb) system W γ Pb , n ranges from 33 to 188 GeV, far higher than previous measurements on heavy-nucleus targets. The cross section is larger than expected for ϕ ( 1020 ) photoproduction alone. The mass spectrum is fit to a cocktail consisting of ϕ ( 1020 ) decays, direct K + K − photoproduction, and interference between the two. The confidence regions for the amplitude and relative phase angle for direct K + K − photoproduction are presented. © 2024 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration 2024 CERN