K^+ production in p-C-collisions at a beam energy 1.2 GeV

The isobar model and the resonance model are applied for the first analysis of the subthreshold $K^+$-meson production in proton-carbon collisions, which was perfomed at GSI at an emission angle of 40 degrees and a bombarding energy of 1.2 GeV. In this study, we focus on the role of the secondary processes $\pi N \to K^+ Y$ in normal nuclear matter density. It turns out that the present approach can reproduce very well both the $\pi^+$- and $K^+$- meson spectra. It is also demonstrated that the different kinds of descriptions for the $\pi N \to K^+ \Lambda$ reactions substantially differentiate the calculated results for the $p A \to K^+ X$ differential cross sections.