Momentum dependence of pion-induced φ meson production on nuclei near threshold

We study the near-threshold pion-induced production ofφmesons off nuclei in the kinematical conditions of the HADES experiment,recently performed at GSI.The calculations have been performed within a collision model based on the nuclear spectral function.The model accounts for both the primaryπ~-meson–protonπ~-p→φn and the secondary pion–nucleonπN→φNφproduction processes as well as the effects of the nuclearφand nucleon mean-field potentials.We find that the primary reaction channelπ~-p→φn dominates in theφproduction off~(12)C and~(184)W target nuclei in the HADES acceptance window at incident pion momentum of 1.7 Ge V/c.We calculate the momentum dependence of the absolute and relative(transparency ratio)φmeson yields from the above direct channel.The calculations have been performed for this initial pion momentum allowing for different options for theφN absorption cross sectionσ_(φN )and different scenarios for the in-medium mass shifts of theφmeson and secondary neutron,produced together withφin this channel.We demonstrate that the transparency ratio for theφmesons has,contrary to the absolute cross sections,an insignificant sensitivity to theφmeson and secondary neutron in-medium mass shifts atφmomenta studied in the HADES experiment.On the other hand,we show that there are measurable changes in the transparency ratio due to theφN absorption cross section,which means that such a relative observable can be useful to help determine this cross section from the data taken in the HADES experiment.