Separated structure functions for exclusive ${K}^{+}\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ and ${K}^{+}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{0}$ electroproduction at 5.5 GeV measured with CLAS

Separated structure functions for exclusive $K^{+} Λ$ and $K^{+} Σ^{0}$ electroproduction at 5.5 GeV measured with CLAS

D. S. Carman et al. (CLAS Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. C 87, 025204 – Published 20 February 2013

Abstract

We report measurements of the exclusive electroproduction of $K^{+} Λ$ and $K^{+} Σ^{0}$ final states from an unpolarized proton target using the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The separated structure functions $σ_{U}$ , $σ_{L T}$ , $σ_{T T}$ , and $σ_{L T^{'}}$ were extracted from the $Φ$ -dependent differential cross sections acquired with a longitudinally polarized 5.499 GeV electron beam. The data span a broad range of momentum transfers $Q^{2}$ from 1.4 to 3.9 GeV $^{2}$ , invariant energy $W$ from threshold to 2.6 GeV, and nearly the full center-of-mass angular range of the kaon. The separated structure functions provide an unprecedented data sample, which, in conjunction with other meson photo- and electroproduction data, will help to constrain the higher-level analyses being performed to search for missing baryon resonances.