A comparison of pion production in the reaction K−p → Λ + pions at 8.25 GeV/c with pp and ee annihilation data

We present data on the production of charged and neutral pions in the hypercharge annihilation reaction K−p → Λ+ pions at 8.25 GeV/c. Using the concept of available energy we have compared our data with that from the processes pp annihilation, and ee annihilation to hadrons. The measure of agreement among the three samples of data is in contrast with the behaviour of non-annihilation data, which we present for comparison, and indicates that over the present energy range our approach is a useful phenomenological way of looking at the annihilation process.