Electroproduction of baryon–meson states and strangeness suppression

AbstractWe describe the electroproduction ratios of baryon–meson states from nucleon, inferring from the sea quarks in the nucleon using an extension of the quark model that takes into account the sea. As a result we provide, with no adjustable parameters, the predictions of ratios of exclusive meson–baryon final states: ΛK+, Σ⁎K, ΣK, pπ0, and nπ+. These predictions are in agreement with the new JLab experimental data showing that sea quarks play an important role in the electroproduction. We also predicted further ratios of exclusive reactions that can be measured and tested in future experiments. In particular, we suggested new experiments on deuterium and tritium. Such measurements can provide crucial tests of different predictions concerning the structure of nucleon and its sea quarks helping to solve an outstanding problem. Finally, we compute the so called strangeness suppression factor, λs, that is the suppression of strange quark–antiquark pairs compared to nonstrange pairs, and we found that our finding with this simple extension of the quark model is in good agreement with the results of JLab and CERN experiments