Hyperon beam physics

At this time two hyperon beams are operational, a neutral beam at Fermilab and a charged beam at CERN. Within a year a new charged- hyperon beam will be completed at Fermilab and be capable of exploiting a considerably higher energy and intensity range than the existing beams. The utilization of these beams in the next few years should provide significant advances in a number of areas. Systematic measurements of Lambda and Lambda production cross sections over a wide range of kinematic variables have been published, and a high statistics study of Xi /sup 0/ production, including A dependence and polarization, has been completed. Similar measurements for the charged hyperons are either planned or already in progress. The behavior of the Lambda polarization as a function of p/sub perpendicular to / out to GeV/c is planned for the Fermilab neutral beam.