Threshold measurement of the reaction pp→ΛΛ at lear

Abstract The excitation function of the reaction p p→ Λ Λ in the threshold region has been measured at LEAR. Sixteen measurements of the total cross section, in the energy range between 0.85 MeV below threshold and 4.05 MeV above, are presented. The shapes of the measured differential cross sections indicate a remarkably strong p-wave contribution even down to the reaction threshold. We also report here the measurement of significant polarizations in the threshold region; these are compared with previous higher-energy data.