Role of phi decays for K- yields in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The production of strange mesons in collisions of Ar+KCl at a kinetic beam energy of 1.756 AGeV is studied within a transport model of Boltzmann-\"Uhling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) type. In particular, phi, K⁺ and K^- yields and spectra are compared to the data mesured recently by the HADES collaboration and the phi yield measured previously by the FOPI collaboration. Our results are in agreement with these data thus presenting an interpretation of the subleading role of phi decays into K^-'s and confirming the importance of the strangeness-exchange channels for K^- production.