Contribution of the nucleon-hyperon reaction channels to K^- production in proton-nucleus collisions

The cross section for producing K^- mesons in nucleon-hyperon collisions is estimated using the experimentally known pion-hyperon cross sections. The results are implemented in a transport model which is applied to calculation of proton-nucleus collisions. Contrarily to earlier estimates in heavy-ion collisions the inclusion of the nucleon-hyperon cross section roughly doubles the K^- production in near-threshold proton-nucleus collisions.