Production of Strange Particles and Antiparticles in Nuclear Interactions of Very High Energy (E∼1013ev)

The production of strange particles, nucleons, and antibaryons (antinucleons and antihyperons) in nuclear collisions of an energy between ${10}^{12}$ and ${10}^{14}$ ev was studied by looking for high-energy interactions produced by the secondary particles. The ratio of secondary interactions initiated by neutral particles to those initiated by charged particles was found to be $Q=0.16\mathrm{}\pm 0.06$. Under reasonable assumptions, these data indicate that $9_{-6\mathrm{}}^{+8\mathrm{}}$% of the high-energy charged secondary particles are charged $K$-mesons or baryons and antibaryons. The average energy of the primary collisions used in our analysis is estimated to be of the order of ${10}^{13}$ ev.