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Comparing fragmentation of strange quark in Z decays and K+p reactions

The ratios of the production rates K*(892)/K, phi/K, rho^0/pi, omega/pi, Delta^{++}/p, Sigma+(1385)/Lambda, Xi^-/Lambda and their x_p dependences obtained from results of the LEP and SLD experiments in Z hadronic decays are analysed. The corresponding ratios for promptly produced mesons are estimated at x_p -> 1. A comparison of the LEP results with those from the Mirabelle and BEBC K+p experiments at 32 and 70 GeV/c shows striking similarity in fragmentation of the strange valence quark of the incident K+ and strange quarks produced in Z decays. The JETSET model describes the LEP, Mirabelle and BEBC results. The model of Pei is consistent with the data for mesons, but presumably underestimates the fractions of primary octet baryons. The quark combinatorics model of Anisovich et al.is incompatible with the data.