Transport analysis of in-medium hadron effects in pA and AA collisions

The production and decay of vector mesons (ρ,ω) in pA and AA reactions is studied with particular emphasis on their in-medium spectral functions. It is explored within transport calculations if hadronic in-medium decays like ππ or πγ might provide complementary information to their dilepton (ee) decays. Whereas the ππ signal from the ρ-meson is found to be strongly distorted by pion rescattering, the ω-meson Dalitz decay to πγ appears promising even for more heavy nuclei in γA and pA reactions. Furthermore, the influence of nucleon and kaon/antikaon potentials on the K yields and spectra in pA collisions is calculated and compared to the recent data from the ANKE Collaboration. PACS. 13.60.Le Meson production – 13.75.Jz Kaon-baryon interactions – 14.40.Aq Pi, K, and eta mesons – 24.40.-h Nucleon-induced reactions