Measurement of $$\phi $$ meson production in $$p + p$$ interactions at 40, 80 and $$158 \, \hbox {GeV}/c$$ with the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS
Authors: Aduszkiewicz A. , Andronov E. V. , Antićić T. , Babkin V. , Baszczyk M. , Bhosale S. , Blondel A. , Bogomilov M. , Brandin A. , Bravar A. , Bryliński W. , Brzychczyk J. , Buryakov M. , Busygina O. , Bzdak A. , Cherif H. , Ćirković M. , Csanad M. , Cybowska J. , Czopowicz T. , Damyanova A. , Davis N. , Deliyergiyev M. , Deveaux M. , Dmitriev  A. , Dominik W. , Dorosz P. , Dumarchez J. , Engel R. , Feofilov G. A. , Fields L. , Fodor Z. , Garibov A. , Gaździcki M. , Golosov O. , Golovatyuk  V. , Golubeva M. , Grebieszkow K. , Guber F. , Haesler A. , Igolkin S. N. , Ilieva S. , Ivashkin A. , Johnson S. R. , Kadija K. , Kaptur E. , Kargin N. , Kashirin E. , Kiełbowicz M. , Kireyeu V. A. , Klochkov V. , Kolesnikov V. I. , Kolev D. , Korzenev A. , Kovalenko V. N. , Kowalik K. , Kowalski S. , Koziel M. , Krasnoperov A. , Kucewicz W. , Kuich M. , Kurepin A. , Larsen D. , László A. , Lazareva T. V. , Lewicki M. , Łojek K. , Łysakowski B. , Lyubushkin V. V. , Maćkowiak-Pawłowska M. , Majka Z. , Maksiak B. , Malakhov A. I. , Manić D. , Marchionni A. , Marcinek A. , Marino A. D. , Marton K. , Mathes H.-J. , Matulewicz T. , Matveev V. , Melkumov G. L. , Merzlaya A. O. , Messerly B. , Mik Ł. , Morozov S. , Mrówczyński S. , Nagai Y. , Naskręt M. , Ozvenchuk V. , Paolone V. , Pavin M. , Petukhov O. , Płaneta R. , Podlaski P. , Popov B. A. , Porfy B. , Posiadała-Zezula M. , Prokhorova D. S. , Pszczel D. , Puławski S. , Puzović J. , Ravonel M. , Renfordt R. , Richter-Wąs E. , Röhrich D. , Rondio E. , Roth M. , Rumberger B. T. , Rumyantsev M. , Rustamov A. , Rybczynski M. , Rybicki A. , Sadovsky A. , Schmidt K. , Selyuzhenkov I. , Seryakov A. Yu. , Seyboth P. , Słodkowski M. , Staszel P. , Stefanek G. , Stepaniak J. , Strikhanov M. , Ströbele H. , Šuša T. , Taranenko A. , Tefelska A. , Tefelski D. , Tereshchenko V. , Toia A. , Tsenov R. , Turko L. , Ulrich R. , Unger M. , Valiev F. F. , Veberič D. , Vechernin V. V. , Wickremasinghe A. , Włodarczyk Z. , Wojtaszek-Szwarc A. , Wyszyński O. , Zambelli L. , Zimmerman E. D. , Zwaska R. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractResults on$$\phi $$ϕmeson production in inelastic$$p + p$$p+pcollisions at CERN SPS energies are presented. They are derived from data collected by the NA61/SHINE fixed target experiment, by means of invariant mass spectra fits in the$$\phi \rightarrow K^+ K^- $$ϕ→K+K-decay channel. They include the first ever measured double differential spectra of$$\phi $$ϕmesons as a function of rapidity$$y$$yand transverse momentum$$p_{\text {T}}$$pTfor proton beam momenta of$$80 \, \hbox {GeV}/c$$80GeV/cand$$158 \, \hbox {GeV}/c$$158GeV/c, as well as single differential spectra of$$y$$yor$$p_{\text {T}}$$pTfor beam momentum of$$40 \, \hbox {GeV}/c$$40GeV/c. The corresponding total$$\phi $$ϕyields per inelastic$$p + p$$p+pevent are obtained. These results are compared with existing data on$$\phi $$ϕmeson production in$$p + p$$p+pcollisions. The comparison shows consistency but superior accuracy of the present measurements. The emission of$$\phi $$ϕmesons in$$p + p$$p+preactions is confronted with that occurring in$$\mathrm{Pb} + \mathrm{Pb}$$Pb+Pbcollisions, and the experimental results are compared with model predictions. It appears that none of the considered models can properly describe all the experimental observations.