Inclusive V production cross sections from 920 GeV fixed target proton-nucleus collisions

Inclusive differential cross sections dsigma(pA)/dx(F) and dsigma(pA)/dp(t)(2) for the production of K-S(0), Lambda, and (U) over bar particles are measured at HERA in proton-induced reactions on C, Al, Ti, and W targets. The incident beam energy is 920 GeV, corresponding to roots = 41.6 GeV in the proton-nucleon system. The ratios of differential cross sections dsigma(pA)(K-S(0))/dsigma(pA)(Lambda) and dsigma(pA)((U) over bar)/dsigma(pA) (Lambda) are measured to be 6.2 +/- 0.5 and 0.66 +/- 0.07, respectively, for x(F) approximate to -0.06. No significant dependence upon the target material is observed. Within errors, the slopes of the transverse momentum distributions da,Ald t also show no significant dependence upon the target material. The dependence of the extrapolated total cross sections sigma(pA) on the atomic mass A of the target material is discussed, and the deduced cross sections per nucleon sigma(pN) are compared with results obtained at other energies.