L/T separation in kaon electroproduction using CLAS at Jefferson Lab

Measurements of the cross sections for the $p(e,e^\prime K^+)\Lambda/\Sigma^0$ reaction have been performed using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at Jefferson Lab. This process was selected since the measured observables are sensitive to the resonant and non-resonant amplitudes of the underlying cross section. The data were taken with beam energies of 2.567, 4.056 and 4.247 GeV, and covered $Q^2$ from $\sim$ 0.5 to 2.5 (GeV/c)$^2$ and $W$ from threshold to $\sim$ 2.5 GeV. A substantial overlap in the $Q^2$ range for the data sets with different energies allowed us to perform a separation of the longitudinal and transverse contributions to the unpolarized cross section. The separation was performed using two different approaches, the Rosenbluth technique and simultaneous $\epsilon-\phi$ fit to all of the data. We will present preliminary results on the extracted ratio, $\sigma_L/\sigma_T$, as a function of $W$ and the center-of-momentum scattering angles. We will also discuss implications for the theoretical descriptions of these processes. This measurement is part of a larger CLAS program to measure cross sections and polarization observables for kaon electroproduction in the nucleon resonance region.