Kaon absorption in flight and the binding of K̄ in nuclei

We make a theoretical study of the kaon absorption in flight on nuclei with a kaon beam of 1 GeV momentum, paying special attention to the forward and energetic emitted protons, which were used to claim a deep kaon nucleus optical potential in a recent experiment. We perform a Monte Carlo simulation of this reaction, which allows to account not only for quasi‐elastic K−p scattering, but also for the other processes which contribute to the proton spectra and which are not taken into account by the ordinary Green’s function method analysis. The experiment looks for fast protons, but in coincidence with at least one charged particle in a decay counters sandwiching the target. The coincidence requirement is assumed not to distort the shape of the proton spectra, but we show that this is not the case and as a consequence the conclusions drawn from the experimental analysis do not hold.