$$K^{0}_{S}$$ meson production in inelastic p+p interactions at 158 $$\text{ GeV }/c$$ beam momentum measured by NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS

Abstract The production of $$K^{0}_{S}$$ K S 0 mesons in inelastic p+p collisions at beam momentum 158 $$\text{ GeV }/c$$ GeV / c ( $$\sqrt{s_{NN}}=17.3$$ s NN = 17.3 $$\text{ GeV }$$ GeV ) was measured with the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. Double-differential distributions were obtained in transverse momentum and rapidity. The mean multiplicity of $$K^{0}_{S}$$ K S 0 was determined to be $$0.162 \pm 0.001 (stat.) \pm 0.011 (sys.)$$ 0.162 ± 0.001 ( s t a t . ) ± 0.011 ( s y s . ) . The results on $$K^{0}_{S}$$ K S 0 production are compared with model predictions ( EPOS 1.99 , SMASH 2.0, PHSD and UrQMD 3.4 models) as well as with published world data.