At the COSY-11 installation, a first value of the total cross section for the reaction pp->ppK+K- below the Phi production threshold has been determined at an excess energy of eta = 17 MeV.
To study the energy dependence of the total cross section, at eta = 28 MeV data have been taken successfully. Due to severe problems with the internal cluster jet target used at the COSY-11 installation during the measurement at an excess energy of 10 MeV, the respective data taken so far do not allow to deduce a total cross section value. Thus, to conclude our investigations on the energy dependence of the close-to-threshold K+K- production we ask for two weeks of additional beam time.
Preliminary results are presented, and further physical motivation is given from recent theoretical investigations for the importance of a measurement close to the production threshold.
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