Strangeness Suppression of q(q)over-bar Creation Observed in Exclusive Reactions

We measured the ratios of electroproduction cross sections from a proton target for three exclusive meson-baryon final states: AK(+), p pi(0), and n pi(+), with the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. Using a simplemodel of quark hadronization, we extract q (q) over bar creation probabilities for the first time in exclusive two-body production, in which only a single q (q) over bar pair is created. We observe a sizable suppression of strange quark-antiquark pairs compared to nonstrange pairs, similar to that seen in high-energy production.