Charge exchange and charge distributions in K−p interactions at 10 and 16 GeV/c

Abstract For each K − p event, the charge exchange, ΔQ , is calculated, as the difference between the total charge of the forward going particles and of the incident K-meson. Taking all inelastic events, it is found that zero charge exchange does not dominate, occuring in only 40% of the cases. The proportion of ΔQ = + 1 is also 40%, while ΔQ = − 1 and ΔQ = + 2 both represent about 10% of the events and other values of ΔQ are not important. The average charge exchange and the dispersion of ΔQ values are compared with the predictions of the multiperipheral and fragmentation models.