We study the in-medium effects in strangeness production in heavy-ion collisions at (sub-)\-threshold energies of 1 - 2 A GeV based on the microscopic Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach. The in-medium modifications of the antikaon $(\bar K = K^-, \bar K^0)$ properties are described via the self-consistent coupled-channel unitarized scheme based on a SU(3) chiral Lagrangian which incorporates explicitly the $s-$ and $p-$ waves of the kaon-nucleon interaction. This scheme provides the antikaon potential, spectral functions and reaction cross sections as well as their dependence on baryon density, temperature and antikaon momentum in the nuclear medium, which are incorporated in the off-shell dynamics of the PHSD. The in-medium modification of kaons $(K = K^+, K^0)$ are accounted via the kaon-nuclear potential, which is assumed to be proportional to the local baryon density. The manifestation of the medium effects in observables is investigated for the $K$ and ${\bar K}$ rapidity distributions, $p_T$-spectra as well as the polar and azimuthal angular distributions, direct ($v_1$) and elliptic ($v_2$) flow in C+C, Ni+Ni, and Au+Au collisions. We find - by comparison to experimental data from the KaoS, FOPI and HADES Collaborations - that the modifications of (anti)kaon properties in nuclear matter are necessary to explain the data in a consistent manner. Moreover, we demonstrate the sensitivity of kaon observables to the equation-of-state of nuclear matter.
Within the framework of the improved isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamics (ImIQMD) model, the dynamics of strangeness (K$^{0,+}$, $Λ$ and $Σ^{-,0,+}$) production in heavy-ion collisions near threshold energies is investigated systematically, in which the strange particles are considered to be mainly produced by the inelastic collisions of baryon-baryon and pion-baryon. The collisions in the region of supra-saturation densities of the dense baryonic matter formed in heavy-ion collisions dominate the yields of strangeness production. The total multiplicities as functions of incident ener…
We study systematically the production of strangeness in nuclear reactions from SIS to SPS energies within the covariant hadronic transport approach HSD. Whereas the proton and pion rapidity distributions as well as pion transverse momentum spectra are well described in the hadronic transport model from 2-200 AGeV, the $K^+$ and $K^-$ spectra are noticeably underestimated at AGS energies while the $K^+$ spectra match well at SIS and SPS energies with the experimental data. We conclude that the failure of the hadronic model at AGS energies points towards a nonhadronic phase during the collision…
The properties of $K^+$ and $K^-$ mesons are studied in nuclear reactions from SIS to RHIC energies within the covariant transport approach HSD in comparison to the experimental data whenever available. Whereas kaon abundancies and spectra indicate little repulsive or vanishing selfenergies in the medium, antikaons are found to experience strong attractive potentials in nucleus-nucleus collisions at SIS energies. However, even when including these potentials the $K^+$ and $K^-$ spectra at AGS energies are noticeably underestimated showing an experimental excess of strangeness that points towar…
The parity-violating nucleon-nucleon interaction is the key to understanding the strangeness-conserving hadronic weak interaction at low energies. In this brief talk, I review the past accomplishments in and current status of this subject, and outline a new joint effort between experiment and theory that tries to address the potential problems in the past by focusing on parity violation in few-nucleon systems and using the language of effective field theory.
We review recent developments in the field of microscopic transport model calculations for ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. In particular, we focus on the strangeness production, for example, the phi-meson and its role as a messenger of the early phase of the system evolution. Moreover, we discuss the important effects of the (soft) field properties on the multiparticle system. We outline some current problems of the models as well as possible solutions to them.
In this contribution we discuss the physics of strange hadrons in low energy ($\simeq 1-2 \rm AGeV$) heavy ion collision. In this energy range the relevant strange particle are the kaons and anti-kaons. The most interesting aspect concerning these particles are so called in-medium modifications. We will attempt to review the current status of understanding of these in medium modifications. In addition we will briefly discuss other issues related with kaon production, such as the nuclear equation of state and chemical equilibrium.
In this talk we review the consequences of the chiral SU(3) symmetry for strangeness propagation in nuclear matter. Objects of crucial importance are the meson-baryon scattering amplitudes obtained within the chiral coupled-channel effective field theory. Results for antikaon and hyperon-resonance spectral functions in cold nuclear matter are presented and discussed. The importance of the Sigma(1385) resonance for the subthreshold antikaon production in heavy-ion reaction at SIS is pointed out. The in-medium properties of the latter together with an antikaon spectral function based on chiral S…
Non-perturbative QCD vacuum effects at finite density are parametrized by means of a bag constant $B$. It is extracted from a Nambu- Jona Lasinio model with two or three flavors. The parameter $B$ is used in an effective quark-meson coupling model to study the nuclear phenomenology. We examine the nucleon structure and the thermodynamical properties of symmetric nuclear matter, particular attention is paid to the symmetry energy and to the eventual phase transition to deconfined quark matter. An alternative sketch of the binding mechanism of symmetric nuclear matter emerges within this approac…
We investigate whether the quark gluon plasma (QGP) is created in small colliding systems from analyses of various hadron yields and their ratios in proton-proton (p+p), proton-lead (p+Pb) and lead-lead (Pb+Pb) collisions at LHC energies. Recently, the ALICE Collaboration reports enhancement of yield ratio of multi-strange hadrons to charged pions as a function of multiplicity at mid-rapidity. Motivated by these results, we develop the dynamical core-corona initialization framework and find that our results describe tendencies of the ALICE data especially for multi-strange hadrons. These resul…
Strangeness (K$^{0,+}$, $Λ$ and $Σ^{-,0,+}$) production in heavy-ion collisions near threshold energies has been investigated within the Lanzhou quantum molecular dynamics (LQMD) transport model. The kaon (anti-kaon)-nucleon and hyperon-nucleon potentials in dense nuclear matter are implemented in the model, which are computed from the chiral perturbation approach and the relativistic mean-field model, respectively. It is found that the in-medium potentials change the structure of transverse flow, and also affect the rapidity distributions and the inclusive spectra for strangeness production. …
The idea that effective string tension increases as a result of the hard gluon kinks on a string is applied to study the strange particle production in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. It is found that the effective string tension increases with the increase of centrality and mass of the colliding system as a consequence of the mini-(gluon)jet production stemming from the collective string-string interaction. This mechanism leads to strangeness enhancement in pA and AA collisions through the enhanced production of the strange quark pairs from the color field of strings. We discus…
Production of strange hadrons in elementary and heavy-ion reactions is studied with the hadronic transport approach SMASH (Simulating Many Accelerated Strongly-interacting Hadrons). The poorly known branching ratios of the relevant hadronic resonances are constrained from the known elementary hadronic cross sections and from invariant mass spectra of dileptons. The constrained model is employed as a baseline to compare to heavy-ion-collision experiments at low energies ($E_\text{kin} = 1-2A\,\text{GeV}$) and to predict some of the upcoming pion-beam results by HADES, which are expected to be s…
In these lectures we discuss the investigation of the strange meson production in proton-proton ($pp$) and in proton-nucleus ($pA$) reactions within an effective Lagrangian model. The kaon production proceeds mainly via the excitations of $N^*$(1650), $N^*$(1710), and $N^*$(1720) resonant intermediate nucleonic states, in the collision of two initial state nucleons. Therefore, the strangeness production is expected to provide information about the resonances lying at higher excitation energies. For beam energies very close to the kaon production threshold the hyperon-proton final state interac…
Production of negative strangeness in reactions of inelastic anti-neutrino scattering on a nucleus provides information on the modification of strange degrees of freedom in nuclear matter. We calculate cross-sections of the reaction channels $\barν_{e(μ)}\to e^+(μ^+) + K^{-}$ and $\barν_{e(μ)} + p \to \Lb + e^+(μ^+)$ and investigate their sensitivity to the medium effects. In particular, we consider effects induced by the presence of a low-energy excitation mode in the $K^-$ spectrum, associated with the correlated $Λ$-particle and proton-hole states, and the renormalization of the weak intera…
The stopping behaviour of baryons in massive heavy ion collisions (at SPS, RHIC and LHC) is investigated within different microscopic models. At SPS-energies the predictions range from full stopping to virtually total transparency. Experimental data are indicating strong stopping. The initial baryo-chemical potentials and temperatures at collider energies and their impact on the formation probability of strange baryon clusters and strangelets are discussed.
Kaon production, in particular $K^+$ production in heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies is discussed. Main emphasis is put on the question if subthreshold $K^+$ production can serve as a suitable tool to test the high density phase of such reactions and to deliver information on the high density behavior of the nuclear equation of state. It is shown that the $K^+$ excitation function in heavy ($Au+Au$) over light ($C+C$) systems provides a robust observable which, by comparison to data, strongly favors a soft equation of state. A second question of interest is the existence of an in-m…
The properties of the nucleons in nuclear medium have been investigated in the context of the flux tube model incorporating strangeness $(s\bar{s})$ contribution to proton structure in conformity with the experimental indication. Proton is described as a pentaquark system with strange quark contribution whereas neutron is described in three quark configuration. The Quasi particle model of diquark is used to describe the structures of the nucleons. Modifications of the properties like swelling, mass, incompressibility, ratio of the structure functions ($\frac{F_{2}^{n}(x)}{F_{2}^{p}(x)}$), Gott…
Kaon production in pion-nucleon collisions in nuclear matter is studied in the resonance model. To evaluate the in-medium modification of the reaction amplitude as a function of the baryonic density we introduce relativistic, mean-field potentials for the initial, final and intermediate mesonic and baryonic states. These vector and scalar potentials were calculated using the quark-meson coupling (QMC) model. The in-medium kaon production cross sections in pion-nucleon interactions for reaction channels with $Λ$ and $Σ$ hyperons in the final state were calculated at the baryonic densities appro…
We calculate $p, π^\pm, K^\pm$ and $Λ$(+$Σ^0$) rapidity distributions and compare to experimental data from SIS to SPS energies within the UrQMD and HSD transport approaches that are both based on string, quark, diquark ($q, \bar{q}, qq, \bar{q}\bar{q}$) and hadronic degrees of freedom. The two transport models do not include any explicit phase transition to a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). It is found that both approaches agree rather well with each other and with the experimental rapidity distributions for protons, $Λ$'s, $π^\pm$ and $K^\pm$. Inspite of this apparent agreement both transport mode…
Double strangeness $Ξ^{-}$ production in Au+Au collisions at 2, 4, and 6 GeV/nucleon incident beam energies is studied with the pure hadron cascade version of a multi-phase transport model. It is found that due to larger nuclear compression, the model with the soft equation of state (EoS) gives larger yields of both single strangeness ($K^{+}$ and $Λ+Σ^{0}$) and double strangeness $Ξ^{-}$. The sensitivity of the double strangeness $Ξ^{-}$ to the EoS is evidently larger than that of $K^{+}$ or $Λ+Σ^{0}$ since the phase-space distribution of produced $Ξ^{-}$ is more compact compared to those of …
A systematic analysis of data on strangeness and pion production in nucleon-nucleon and central nucleus-nucleus collisions is presented. It is shown that at all collision energies the pion/baryon and strangeness/pion ratios indicate saturation with the size of the colliding nuclei. The energy dependence of the saturation level suggests that the transition to the Quark Gluon Plasma occurs between 15 AGeV/c (BNL AGS) and 160 AGeV/c (CERN SPS) collision energies. The experimental results interpreted in the framework of a statistical approach show that the effective number of degrees of freedom in…
We determine chemical freeze-out conditions from strangeness observables measured at RHIC beam energies. Based on a combined analysis of lowest-order net-Kaon fluctuations and strange anti-baryon over baryon yield ratios we obtain visibly enhanced freeze-out conditions at high beam energies compared to previous studies which analyzed net-proton and net-charge fluctuations. Our findings are in qualitative agreement with the recent study [1] which utilizes the net-Kaon fluctuation data in combination with information from lattice QCD. Our complimentary approach shows that also strange hadron yie…
We study pre-equilibrium strangeness production at RHIC energies in a new parton cascade. Starting with the turbulent glue HIJING initial conditions we investigate the interplay between mini-jet and soft beam jet gluons for strangeness production prior to hadronization, and show the importance of soft beam jet gluons in the strangeness production.
We study the properties of strange mesons in vacuum and in the hot nuclear medium within unitarized coupled-channel effective theories. We determine transition probabilities, cross sections and scattering lengths for strange mesons. These scattering observables are of fundamental importance for understanding the dynamics of strangeness production and propagation in heavy-ion collisions.
A model for description of the s_{NN}^{1/2} dependence of K+/pi+ ratio at the CERN SPS and upper AGS energies is proposed. It uses hadronic degrees of freedom and the amount of produced strangeness is mainly controlled by the total lifetime of the fireball. Decreasing lifetime with increasing collision energy is conjectured.
Probing strangeness with event topology classifiers in pp collisions at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with the rope hadronization mechanism in PYTHIA
We have estimated centrality variation of chemical freeze-out parameters from yield data at mid-rapidity of $π^\pm$, $K^\pm$ and $p$, $\bar{p}$ for collision energies of RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider), Beam Energy Scan (RHIC-BES) program, and LHC (Large Hadron Collider). We have considered a simple hadron resonance gas model and employed a formalism involving conserved charges ($B, Q, S$) of QCD for parameterization. Along with temperature and three chemical potentials ($T,μ_B,μ_Q,μ_S$), a strangeness under-saturation factor ($γ_S$) has been used to incorporate the partial equilibratio…
Antiproton annihilations on nuclei provide a very interesting way to study the behaviour of strange particles in the nuclear medium. In low energy $\bar p$ annihilations, the hyperons are produced mostly by strangeness exchange mechanisms. Thus, hyperon production in $\bar p A$ interactions is very sensitive to the properties of the antikaon-nucleon interaction in nuclear medium. Within the Giessen Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model (GiBUU), we analyse the experimental data on $Λ$ and $K^0_S$ production in $\bar p A$ collisions at $p_{\rm lab}=0.2-4$ GeV/c. A satisfactory overall agre…
We develop the notion of "broad-band equilibration" in heavy-ion processes involving dense medium. Given density-dependent \Km-masses we show that the equilibration at GSI energies claimed to hold in previous treatments down to $\sim ρ_0/4$, can be replaced by a broad-band equilibration in which the \Km-meson and hyperons are produced in an essentially constant ratio independent of density. There are experimental indications that this also holds for AGS energies. We then proceed to argue that {\it both} $K^+$ and $K^-$ must get lighter in dense medium at some density $ρ>ρ_0$ due to the decoupl…
The production and dynamics of strange and antistrange hadrons in heavy-ion reactions from $\sqrt{s_{NN}} \approx$ 3 GeV to 200 GeV is analyzed within the Parton-Hadron-String-Dynamics (PHSD) transport model. The PHSD results for strange baryon and antibaryon production are roughly consistent with the experimental data starting from upper SPS energies. Nevertheless, hadronic final state flavor-exchange reactions are important for the actual abundances, in particular at large rapidities where hadronic dynamics, parton fragmentation and string decay dominate. A striking disagreement between the …
We review strangeness as signature of quark gluon plasma (QGP) and the hadronization process of a QGP fireball formed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions in the entire range of today accessible reaction energies. We discuss energy dependence of the statistical hadronization parameters within the context of fast QGP hadronization. We find that QGP breakup occurs for all energies at the universal hadronization pressure $P = 80\pm 3\,\mathrm{MeV/fm}^3 $.
We study the propagation of non-strange and strange meson modes in hadronic matter considering both isospin and strangeness mixings induced by quantum fluctuations in the medium. Baryons are described using the Quark Meson Coupling model extended to include interactions of strange quarks. In particular we evaluate the dependence of the meson masses on the baryonic density, the strangeness fraction and the isospin asymmetry of the medium. We have found a considerable admixture of strangeness and isospin in the sigma-mode in the high density regime.
We study strangeness (K^+, K^-, and Lambda) production and flow in Ni+Ni collisions at 1-2 AGeV, based on the relativistic transport model including the strangeness degrees of freedom. We find that strangeness spectra and flow are sensitive to the properties of strange hadrons in nuclear medium. The predictions of the chiral perturbation theory that the K^+ feels a weak repulsive potential and K^- feels a strong attractive potential are in good agreement with recent experimental data from FOPI and KaoS collaborations.
We review the present activities related to hypernuclear production in hadronic in-medium reactions at intermediate energies. The status of theoretical predictions and experimental evidences for the in-medium formation of bound superstrange matter is discussed. Heavy-ion collisions and antiproton-induced reactions at energies close to strangeness production thresholds create the conditions of hypermatter formation. This allows to understand better in-medium hyperon interactions and sets constraints on the strangeness sector of the nuclear equation of state.
We present for the first time quantitative results for the coupled dynamics of second order fluctuations in the three conserved charges of QCD based on stochastic diffusion equations for a Bjorken-type expanding hadronic medium.
Thermal models are very useful in the understanding of particle production in general and especially in the case of strangeness. We summarize the assumptions which go into a thermal model calculation and which differ in the application of various groups. We compare the different results to each other. Using our own calculation we discuss the validity of the thermal model and the amount of strangeness equilibration at CERN-SPS energies. Finally the implications of the thermal analysis on the reaction dynamics are discussed.
Boost-invariant hadron production in high energy collisions occurs in causally disconnected regions of finite space-time size. As a result, globally conserved quantum numbers (charge, strangeness, baryon number) are conserved locally in spatially restricted correlation clusters. Their size is determined by two time scales: the equilibration time specifying the formation of a quark-gluon plasma, and the hadronization time, specifying the onset of confinement. The expected values for these scales provide the theoretical basis for the suppression observed for strangeness production in elementary …
We investigate the associated strangeness Lambda K+ and Sigma0 K+ productions in proton-proton collisions within an effective Lagrangian model. The initial interaction between the two nucleons is modeled by the exchange of pi, rho, omega, and sigma mesons and the strangeness production proceeds via excitations of N*(1650), N*(1710), and N*(1720) baryonic resonances. The parameters of the model at the nucleon-nucleon-meson vertices are determined by fitting the elastic nucleon-nucleon scattering with an effective interaction based on the exchange of these four mesons, while those at the resonan…
We discuss strangeness production in heavy-ion collisions within and around the energy range of the planned NICA facility. We describe the minimal statistical model, in which the total strangeness yield is fixed by the observed or calculated $K^+$ multiplicity. We show how the exact strangeness conservation can be taken into account on the event-by-event basis in such a model. We argue that from strange particle yields one can reveal information about the collision dynamics and about possible modifications of particle properties in medium. This can be best achieved if the complete strangeness …
A relativistic transport model is used to study Xi- production in 2-11A GeV Au+Au collisions. Introducing the strangeness-exchange reactions between antikaons and hyperons as the sources for Xi-, we find that the cascade yield in these collisions is in reasonable agreement with the data. Although the Xi- abundance does not reach chemical equilibrium unless the cross section for strangeness-exchange reactions is enhanced by six times, it exhibits the strongest enhancement with increasing centrality of collision and with increasing beam energy.
We study the strangeness production in hot and dense nuclear medium, by requiring the conservation of the baryon density, electric charge fraction and zero net strangeness. The hadronic equation of state is investigated by means of an effective relativistic mean field model, with the inclusion of the full octet of baryons and kaon mesons. Kaons are considered taking into account of an effective chemical potential depending on the self-consistent interaction between baryons. The obtained results are compared with a minimal coupling scheme, calculated for different values of the anti-kaon optica…
The production of strange particles in a hot medium as produced in collisions of heavy ions is considered one of the most important signals for the phase transition to a quark-gluon plasma. In the first part of this lecture, the theoretical description of strangeness production in hot matter is outlined for a gas of quarks and gluons and for a hadronic gas and its impact on the deconfinement phase transition. Then in the second part, constraints from the underlying chiral symmetry of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) are utilized to extract signals with strangeness for the chiral phase transition i…
We discuss medium effects on light cluster production in the QCD phase diagram within a generalized Beth-Uhlenbeck (GBU) approach by relating Mott transition lines to those for chemical freeze-out. We find that in heavy-ion collisions at highest energies provided by the LHC light cluster abundances should follow the statistical model because of low baryon densities. At low energies in the nuclear fragmentation region, where the freeze-out interferes with the liquid-gas phase transition, selfenergy and Pauli blocking effects are important. At intermediate energies the HADES, FAIR and NICA exper…
Time evolution of shear viscosity $η$, entropy density $s$, and their ratio $η/ s$ in the central area of central gold-gold collisions at NICA energy range is studied within the UrQMD transport model. The extracted values of energy density, net baryon density and net strangeness density are used as input to (i) statistical model of ideal hadron gas to define temperature, baryo-chemical potential and strangeness chemical potential, and to (ii) UrQMD box with periodic boundary conditions to study the relaxation process of highly excited matter. During the relaxation stage, the shear viscosity is…
The properties of strange ($K$, $\bar K$ and $\bar K^*$) and open-charm ($D$, $\bar D$ and $D^*$) mesons in dense matter are studied using a unitary approach in coupled channels for meson-baryon scattering. In the strangeness sector, the interaction with nucleons always comes through vector-meson exchange, which is evaluated by chiral and hidden gauge Lagrangians. For the interaction of charmed mesons with nucleons we extend the SU(3) Weinberg-Tomozawa Lagrangian to incorporate spin-flavor symmetry and implement a suitable flavor symmetry breaking. The in-medium solution for the scattering amp…
We construct a hadronic kinetic model which describes production of strange particles in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions in the energy domain of SPS. We test this model on description of the sharp peak in the excitation function of multiplicity ratio K+/pi+ and demonstrate that hadronic model reproduces these data rather well. The model thus must be tested on other types of data in order to verify the hypothesis that deconfinement sets in at lowest SPS energies.
We discuss the $\frac{K}π$ fluctuations in relativistic heavy ion collisions reported by the STAR collaboration, PRL${\bf 103}$,092301(2009), also discussed by the NA49 collaboration at SPS-CERN. We show that these fluctuations could be explained simply by imposing strangeness and charge conservations.
We show that strangeness suppression in hadronic and nuclear collisions is fully determined by the initial energy density of the collision. The suppression factor $γ_s(s)$, with $\sqrt s$ denoting the collision energy, can be expressed as a universal function of the initial energy density $ε_0(s)$, and the resulting pattern is in excellent agreement with data from $p-p,~p-Pb,~Cu-Cu,~Au-Au$ and $Pb-Pb$ data over a wide range of energies and for different centralities.
We study the properties of strange and charm mesons in hot and dense matter within a self-consistent coupled-channel approach for the experimental conditions of density and temperature expected for the CBM experiment at FAIR/GSI. The in-medium solution at finite temperature accounts for Pauli blocking effects, mean-field binding on all the baryons involved, and meson self-energies. In the strange sector, the $\bar K$ spectral function spreads over a wide range of energies, reflecting the melting of the $Λ(1405)$ resonance and the contribution of $(Λ,Σ,Σ^*)N^{-1}$ components at finite temperatu…
I discuss strangeness production in nucleus-nucleus reactions at ultrarelativistic energies (up to 200 AGeV). In these reactions matter may be created with densities and temperatures in the transition region between quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and hadron gas. Strange anti-baryon enhancement at 200 AGeV and probably even more so at 10 AGeV signals importance of interactions beyond hadron gas dynamics. The systematics of strangeness production indicates that energy and baryon density are key variables while the size of the production volume plays no visible role. Analysis of strangeness appears use…
We present the system size and flavour dependence of the chemical freeze-out temperature ($T_\mathrm{ch}$) at vanishing baryo-chemical potential calculated via thermal fits to experimental yields for several multiplicity classes in pp, pPb and PbPb collisions measured by ALICE. Using the Thermal-FIST Hadron Resonance Gas model package, we compare the quality of fits across various treatments of strangeness conservation under different freeze-out conditions as a function of the charged particle multiplicity density $\big \langle dN_\mathrm{ch}/dη\big \rangle$. Additionally, we examine how the a…
We present novel rope hadronization results for strange hadron enhancement in pp, pPb, and PbPb collisions using PYTHIA/Angantyr at LHC energies. With the rope model for string fragmentation, we find that the strangeness and baryon enhancement has a coherent increase across all collision systems as a function of average charged central multiplicity, in qualitative agreement with LHC data. In AA collisions, we find that the baryonic yields overshoot data at high multiplicities, and we discuss how a combination of rope hadronization with other string interactions may tame this rise.
The strangeness production in heavy ion collisions was proposed to be probes of the nuclear equation of state, Kaon potential in nuclear medium, strange quark matter and quark-gluon plasma, etc. However, to act as reliable probes, proper understanding of the basic ingredients for the strangeness production, such as $pp \to pK^+Λ$, $pp \to pp ϕ$ and $pp \to nK^+Σ^+$ is necessary. Recent study of these reactions clearly shows that previously ignored contributions from the spin-parity $1/2^-$ resonances, $N^*(1535)$ and $Δ^*(1620)$, are in fact very important for these reactions, especially for n…
Production of the doubly strange $Ξ$ baryon in heavy-ion collisions at \textrm{SIS} energies is studied in a relativistic transport model that includes perturbatively the strangeness-exchange reactions $\bar{K}Λ\to πΞ$ and $\bar{K}Σ\to πΞ$. Taking the cross sections for these reactions from the predictions of a hadronic model, we find that the $Ξ$ yield is about $10^{-4}$ in central collisions of $% ^{58}$Ni + $^{58}$Ni at $E/A=1.93$ \textrm{GeV}. The $Ξ$ yield is further found to be more sensitive to the magnitude of the cross sections for strangeness-exchange reactions than to the medium eff…
The Omega-bar/Omega ratio originating from string decays is predicted to be larger than unity in proton-proton interaction at SPS energies. The anti-omega dominance increases with decreasing beam energy. This surprising behavior is caused by the combinatorics of quark-antiquark production in small and low-mass strings. Since this behavior is not found in a statistical description of hadron production in proton-proton collisions, it may serve as a key observable to probe the hadronization mechanism in such collisions.
