Multiplicities of charged kaons from deep-inelastic muon scattering off an isoscalar target

Precise measurements of charged-kaon multiplicities in deep inelastic scattering were performed. The results are presented in three-dimensional bins of the Bjorken scaling variable x, the relative virtual-photon energy y, and the fraction z of the virtual-photon energy carried by the produced hadron. The data were obtained by the COMPASS Collaboration by scattering 160 GeV muons off an isoscalar 6LiD target. They cover the kinematic domain 1(GeV/c)25 GeV/c2 in the invariant mass of the hadronic system. The results from the sum of the z-integrated K+ and K− multiplicities at high x point to a value of the non-strange quark fragmentation function larger than obtained by the earlier DSS fit.