Strangeness production in proton and heavy-ion collisions at 14.6A GeV.

Rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\pi}}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$, ${\mathit{K}}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$, and p have been computed for p+Be, p+Au, and Si+Au collisions at 14.6A GeV with the Monte Carlo quark-gluon string model (QGSM). The calculations are compared to experimental data at the same energy. The QGSM reproduced the shapes and approximately absolute values of the minimum bias rapidity distribution for all particles except the pions in p+Au data. The model also reproduced the rapidity distribution for protons and ${\mathit{K}}^{+}$ in the central Si+Au collisions. However, we overestimated the enhancement at low ${\mathit{p}}_{\mathit{t}}$ for pions and negative kaons. As a consequence, the QGSM also produces an excess of pions and ${\mathit{K}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ in the rapidity distribution below y=2, and predicted an overall ${\mathit{K}}^{+}$/${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\pi}}}^{+}$ enhancement by a factor of 1.4--1.9 as compared to pp data, instead of a factor of 4 as obtained by the E802 Collaboration.