Contribution of the nucleon-hyperon reaction channels to K - production in proton-nucleus collisions

The cross sections for producing ${K}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ mesons in nucleon-hyperon elementary processes are estimated assuming one-pion exchange and using the experimentally known pion-hyperon cross sections. The results are implemented in a transport model which is applied to calculation of proton-nucleus collisions. In significant difference to earlier estimates for heavy-ion collisions the inclusion of the nucleon-hyperon cross section roughly doubles the ${K}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ production in near-threshold proton-nucleus collisions.