Measurements of $K^0_{\textrm{S}}$, $\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Lambda}$ production in 120 GeV/$c$ p + C interactions

This paper presents multiplicity measurements of <math display="inline"><msubsup><mi>K</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">S</mi><mn>0</mn></msubsup></math>, <math display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</mi></math>, and <math display="inline"><mover accent="true"><mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover></math> produced in <math display="inline"><mrow><mn>120</mn><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mi>GeV</mi><mo>/</mo><mi>c</mi></mrow></math> proton-carbon interactions. The measurements were made using data collected at the NA61/SHINE experiment during two different periods. Decays of these neutral hadrons impact the measured <math display="inline"><msup><mi>π</mi><mo>+</mo></msup></math>, <math display="inline"><msup><mi>π</mi><mo>-</mo></msup></math>, <math display="inline"><mi>p</mi></math> and <math display="inline"><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover></math> multiplicities in the <math display="inline"><mrow><mn>120</mn><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mi>GeV</mi><mo>/</mo><mi>c</mi></mrow></math> proton-carbon reaction, which are crucial inputs for long-baseline neutrino experiment predictions of neutrino beam flux. The double-differential multiplicities presented here will be used to more precisely measure charged-hadron multiplicities in this reaction, and to reweight neutral hadron production in neutrino beam Monte Carlo simulations.