We report measurements of the exclusive electroproduction of $K^+Lambda$ and $K^+Sigma^0$ final states from an unpolarized proton target using the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The separated structure functions
$sigma_U$, $sigma_{LT}$, $sigma_{TT}$, and $sigma_{LT}$ were extracted from the $Phi$-dependent differential cross sections acquired with a longitudinally polarized 5.499 GeV electron beam. The data span a broad range of momentum transfers $Q^2$ from 1.4 to 3.9 GeV$^2$, invariant energy $W$ from threshold to 2.6 GeV, and nearly the full center-of-mass angular range of the kaon. The separated structure functions provide an unprecedented data sample, which in conjunction with other meson photo- and electroproduction data, will help to constrain the higher-level analyses being performed to search for missing baryon resonances.
Beam-recoil transferred polarizations for the exclusive $vec{e}p to eK^+ vec{Lambda},vec{Sigma}^0$ reactions have been measured using the CLAS spectrometer at Jefferson Laboratory. New measurements have been completed at beam energies of 4.261 and 5.
754 GeV that span a range of momentum transfer $Q^2$ from 0.7 to 5.4 GeV$^2$, invariant energy $W$ from 1.6 to 2.6 GeV, and the full center-of-mass angular range of the $K^+$ meson. These new data add to the existing CLAS $K^+Lambda$ measurements at 2.567 GeV, and provide the first-ever data for the $K^+Sigma^0$ channel in electroproduction. Comparisons of the data with several theoretical models are used to study the sensitivity to s-channel resonance contributions and the underlying reaction mechanism. Interpretations within two semi-classical partonic models are made to probe the underlying reaction mechanism and the $sbar{s}$ quark-pair creation dynamics.
