Production ofK+K−pairs in proton-proton collisions below theϕmeson threshold

The $pp\ensuremath{\rightarrow}pp{K}^{+}{K}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ reaction was measured below the $\ensuremath{\phi}$ threshold at a beam energy of 2.568 GeV using the COSY-ANKE magnetic spectrometer. By assuming that the four-body phase space is distorted only by the product of two-body final-state interactions, fits to a variety of one-dimensional distributions permit the evaluation of differential and total cross sections. The shapes of the distributions in the $Kp$ and $Kpp$ invariant masses are reproduced only if the ${K}^{\ensuremath{-}}p$ interaction is even stronger than that found at higher energy. The cusp effect in the ${K}^{+}{K}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ distribution at the ${K}^{0}{\overline{K}}^{0}$ threshold is much more clear and some evidence is also found for coupling between the ${K}^{\ensuremath{-}}p$ and ${\overline{K}}^{0}n$ channels. However, the energy dependence of the total cross section cannot be reproduced by considering only a simple product of such pairwise final-state interactions.