Azimuthal correlations and Bose Einstein effects in the reaction K+p → K+p2π+2π− AT 16 GeV/c

Abstract Azimuthal distributions between all possible particle pairs are studied in the reaction K + p → K + p2( π + π − ) at 16 GeV/ c . It is shown that the hypothesis of uncorrelated transverse momenta at fixed rapidities of the final-state particles, is sufficient to describe the main features of the data. An interesting exception occurs for identical particle pairs where a genuine short-range correlation, attributed to Bose-Einstein symmetrization, is observed. The correlation length of this effect is shown to be related to the impact parameter distribution of the produced pions.