Production of strange particles and hypernuclei in nuclear reactions at a few GeV. New capabilities in the INCL intranuclear cascade model

Abstract

Motivated by a renewed interest in studies of hypernuclei, the strangeness degree of freedom was implemented in the intranuclear cascade model INCL. This model takes care of the first stage of reactions between a nucleon (or a light cluster) and a nucleus at energies from a few tens of MeV up to a few GeV. After emission of fast particles, a hot remnant nucleus is produced and another model, combined to INCL, handles the de-excitation (the Abla model in our case). The main ingredients will be discussed and we will compare the results to experimental data. The experimental kaon spectra for different target elements and at different energies agree reasonable well with the model predictions. The main remaining discrepancies are analysed and will be explained.