Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Data from KEK on subthreshold antiproton as well as on π^± and K^± production in proton-, deuteron- and alpha-particle-induced reactions at energies between 2.0 and 12.0 AGeV for C, Cu and Pb targets are described within a unified approach. We use a model which considers a nuclear reaction as an incoherent sum over collisions of varying numbers of projectile and target nucleons. It samples complete events and thus allows for the simultaneous consideration of all final particles including the decay products of the nuclear residues. The enormous enhancement of the antiproton cross section, as well as the moderate increase of meson production in deuteron and alpha induced compared to proton-induced reactions, is well reproduced. In our approach, the observed enhancement near the production threshold is mainly due to the contributions from the interactions of few-nucleon groups.