Hunting for K ∗+ in pp and pNb reactions ∗

In a recent study performed by the HADES collaboration for p + p and p + Nb collisions at 3.5 GeV, the production of neutral kaons was investigated [1]. The high statistics available for this analysis suggests that the exited states of the kaons can be investigated as well. One excited state that is decaying into a neutral kaon is the K ∗+(892) (Fig. 1). Information about the production of this particle at the energy of 3.5 GeV is of great interest, since no K ∗+(892) measurements at such low energy are available [2, 3]. The study of the K∗+(892) resonance can be divided into two main steps. In the first step the total and differential cross sections for K∗+(892) production in p + p reactions are reconstructed. The second step is to use this result as a reference for a further investigation of K ∗+(892) production in p + Nb reactions. The latter is interesting, because one can study the contribution by p + n reactions to the total yield, scattering processes inside the nucleus, secondary production processes (e.g. π + N → K ∗ + Λ) and eventual in-medium modifications of the K ∗+(892). The most efficient way to reconstruct K ∗+(892) using HADES data is by the decay scheme shown in Fig. 1.