Absorption and production cross sections of K and K∗

Abstract

We have computed the isospin and spin averaged cross sections of the processes πK∗→ρK and ρK∗→πK, which are crucial in the determination of the abundances of K∗ and K in heavy ion collisions. Improving previous calculations, we have considered several mechanisms which were missing, such as the exchange of axial and vector resonances (K1(1270), K2∗(1430), h1(1170), etc...) and also other processes such as πK∗→ωK,φK and ωK∗,φK∗→πK. We find that some of these mechanisms give important contributions to the cross section.