The Coherent Production of the ( K + π 0 ) System by K + Beam on Copper Nuclei at the OKA Setup

On the statistics of ~1.7 × 10 8 interactions of positively charged kaons on copper nuclei, coherent events of the K + π 0 system production are selected. The cross sections for the Coulomb and coherent strong components and their interference in the region of the K *(892) meson are measured. The partial width for the decay K *(892) → K + γ is determined. When studying the mass spectrum of the K + π 0 system, an effect which can be interpreted as the interference of the chiral anomaly and the K *(892) s -channel amplitudes is found. This gives an estimate for the ratio of the observed amplitude of the chiral anomaly to the theoretical one: A exp / A th = 0.9 ± 0.24(stat.) ± 0.3(syst.).