Measurement of the neutral and charged K* (892) mesons in the MPD experiment at NICA

Abstract

Measurements of K*(892) meson production provide the means to study properties of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Because of their short lifetimes, the charged and neutral K*(892) mesons provide information about the properties of the late hadronic phase due to the presence of rescattering and regeneration effects that can modify resonance yields. The K*(892) mesons can also be used to study the various mechanisms that shape particle transverse momentum (pT) spectra, including the collective flow, in-medium parton energy loss and recombination. Measurement of neutral K*(892) mesons requires reconstruction of the charged pions and kaons originating from the primary vertex. At the same time, the measurement of charged K*(892) mesons involves reconstruction of the weakly decaying Ks mesons. Simultaneous measurement of the two particles is a way to minimize systematic uncertainties of the corresponding physical studies. We present results of feasibility studies for measurement of the charged and neutral K*(892) mesons in the MPD experimental setup in heavy-ion collisions at NICA energies. Results are obtained using full-scale Monte Carlo simulations of the experimental setup.