Interaction effects in {bm K^+} photoproduction on the deuteron

Kaon photoproduction on the deuteron is studied with respect to a specific two-body contribution, namely a pion mediated production process, besides other final state interaction contributions from kaon-nucleon and hyperon-nucleon scattering. In this process, a pion is first photoproduced on one nucleon and then interacts with the spectator nucleon in a strangeness exchange reaction leading to a kaon and a hyperon. A sizeable effect from this pion mediated contribution is found, considerably larger than the previously studied hyperon-nucleon rescattering, whereas kaon-nucleon rescattering is much less important. Besides total and semi-inclusive differential cross sections, tensor target asymmetries are studied with respect to the influence of such interaction effects.