Resonance model study of strangeness production in pp collisions

Results for the energy dependence of the elementary kaon production cross sections in proton-proton collisions are reported. Calculations are performed within an extended version of the resonance model which was used for the previous studies of elementary kaon production in pion-nucleon and pion-$\Delta$ collisions. Although the model treatment is within the {\it empirical} tree level (observed widths for the resonances are used), it is fully relativistic, and includes all relevant baryon resonances up to 2 GeV. One of the purposes of this study is to provide the results for the simulation codes of subthreshold kaon production in heavy ion collisions. This is the first, consistent study of the elementary kaon production reactions including both $\pi B$ and $B B$ ($B=N, \Delta$) collisions on the same footing. Comparisons are made between the calculated results and the existing semi-empirical parametrizations which are widely used for the simulation codes, as well as the experimental data.