The production of charged-kaon pairs in proton–antiproton collisions: The role of higher-twist mechanism

Abstract

The higher-twist (HT) contribution to the charged-kaon pair production in the high energy proton–antiproton collisions at large transverse momentum [Formula: see text] is investigated by using the frozen coupling constant approach for various kaon distribution amplitudes (DAs), which are predicted by light-cone formalism, the light-front quark model, the nonlocal chiral quark model and the light-front holographic AdS/CFT approach. In the numerics, the dependencies of the HT contribution on the transverse momentum [Formula: see text], the rapidity [Formula: see text], and the variable [Formula: see text] are discussed with special emphasis put on DAs. The HT contribution is also compared with the leading-twist ones. It is shown that the HT contributions are dependent on the kaon DAs and also some other phenomenological parameters such as momentum cutoff parameter [Formula: see text]. Inclusive kaon pair production presents a remarkable test case in which HT terms dominate those of LT in certain kinematic regions. The HT direct production process via gluon–gluon fusion contributes significantly to the inclusive cross-section at large [Formula: see text].