Inclusive production of &#931;<SUP>&#177;</SUP>(1385) in K<SUP>-</SUP>p interactions at 10 and 16 GeV/c

The inclusive production of &#931;+(1385) and &#931;-(1385) has been studied in K-p interactions at 10 and 10 and 16 GeV/c. It is found that the cross sections for the reactions K-p &#8594;&#931;&#177; (1385) + anything are approximately constant in the energy range form 10 to 32 GeV/c, being &#8776; 350 µb for &#931; + (1385) and &#8776; 250 &#956;b for &#931; - (1385). The d&#963; dp&#x22A5;2 distributions for &#931;&#177; (1385) fall off exponentially with increasing p&#x22A5;2, with sloped of about 3 (GeV/c)-2. The d&#963;/dx distributions for &#931;+(1385) and &#931;-(1385) are markedly different: the production of &#931;-(1385) is symmetrical forwards and backwards in the c.m.s.; for &#931;+(1385), the distribution is the same as for &#931;-(1385) in the forward direction, but presents a large excess of events in the backward direction. This indicates that for the production of both &#931;+(1385) and &#931;-(1385) the fragmentation of the incoming kaon is negligible. The fragmentation of the target proton is negligible for &#931;-(1385), but it is important for &#931;+(1385) and is responsible for the excess (&#x02DC;100&#956;b) of its cross section over that for &#931;-(1385)