image strangeness production in image annihilations at rest Original Research Article

Events with production of two K+ are observed in View the MathML source annihilations at rest. They are detected in annihilation reactions with four and five prongs and are interpreted to proceed via the following intermediate states: 2K+Σ−Σ−ps→2K+2π−(2nps), 2K+Σ−Σ+nπ−→2K+π+2π−(3n), 2K+Σ−Λn→2K+p2π−(2n) and 2K+K−Λ2n→2K+K−pπ−(2n) with yields (lower limits) (0.17±0.04)×10−4, (2.71±0.47)×10−4, (1.21±0.29)×10−4 and (0.28±0.14)×10−4, respectively. They could be the signature of different production mechanisms like rescattering cascades and formation of quark–gluon plasma and of bound K−K−-few nucleon systems. Even though the statistics is very small, signatures compatible with (K−K−nn) and (K−K−nnp) bound systems are discussed.