Production of Strange Clusters and Strange Matter in Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions at the AGS

Production probabilities for strange clusters and strange matter in Au+Au collisions at AGS energy are obtained in the thermal fireball model. The only parameters of the model, the baryon chemical potential and temperature, were determined from a description of the rather complete set of hadron yields from Si+nucleus collisions at the AGS. For the production of light nuclear fragments and strange clusters the results are similar to recent coalescence model calculations. Strange matter production with baryon number larger than 10 is predicted to be much smaller than any current experimental sensitivities.Comment: 9 Pages (no figures

Production of strange particles at intermediate pT at RHIC

The recombination model is applied to the production of $K, \phi, \Lambda$ and $\Omega$ at all $p_T$ in central Au+Au collisions. The thermal-shower component of the recombination is found to be important for $K$ and $\Lambda$, but only in a minor way for $\phi$ and $\Omega$ in the intermediate to high $p_T$ region. The normalization and inverse slope of the thermal partons in the strange sector are determined by fitting the low-$p_T$ data. At higher $p_T$ the data of $K, \phi, \Lambda$ and $\Omega$ in the log scale are all well reproduced in our study that extends the thermal contribution and includes the shower contribution. The calculated result on the $\Lambda/K$ ratio rises to a maximum of around 2 at $p_T\approx 4$ GeV/c, arching over the data in linear scale. The production of $\phi$ and $\Omega$ are shown to arise mainly from the recombination of thermal partons, thus exhibiting exponential $p_T$ dependences in agreement with the data. Their ratio, $R_{\Omega/\phi}$, rises linearly to $p_T\approx 4$ GeV/c and develops a maximum at $p_T\approx 5.5$ GeV/c. It is argued that the $p_T$ spectra of $\phi$ and $\Omega$ reveal directly the partonic nature of the thermal source that characterizes quark-gluon plasma. Comments are made on the $\Omega$ puzzle due to the simultaneous observation of both the exponential behavior of the $\Omega$ spectrum in $p_T$ and the existence of low-$p_T$ particles associated with $\Omega$ as trigger.Comment: Revised manuscript with new figure

On the Energy and Centrality Dependence of Higher Order Moments of Net-Proton Distributions in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

The higher order moments of the net-baryon distributions in relativistic heavy ion collisions are useful probes for the QCD critical point and fluctuations. Within a simple model we study the colliding energy and centrality dependence of the net-proton distributions in the central rapidity region. The model is based on considering the baryon stopping and pair production effects in the processes. Based on some physical reasoning, the dependence is parameterized. Predictions for the net-proton distributions for Au+Au and Pb+Pb collisions at different centralities at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=39 and 2760 GeV, respectively, are presented from the parameterizations for the model parameters. A possible test of our model is proposed from investigating the net proton distributions in the non-central rapidity region for different colliding centralities and energies.Comment: 6 pages in revtex4, 8 eps figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1107.474

Open charm contribution to dilepton spectra produced in nuclear collisions at SPS energies

Measurements of open charm hadro-production from CERN and Fermilab experiments are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the absolute cross sections and on their A and sqrt(s) dependences. Differential pt and xf cross sections calculated with the Pythia event generator are found to be in reasonable agreement with recent data. The calculations are scaled to nucleus-nucleus collisions and the expected lepton pair yield is deduced. The charm contribution to the low mass dilepton continuum observed by the CERES experiment is found to be negligible. In particular, it is shown that the observed low mass dilepton excess in S-Au collisions cannot be explained by charm enhancement.Comment: 19 pages, 12 eps figures included. To be published in Z.Phys.

Ω−\Omega^- and Ωˉ+\bar\Omega^+ production in Au+Au collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 130 and 200 GeV

Mid-rapidity Omega and anti-Omega production in Au+Au collisions at RHIC is studied with the STAR experiment. We report preliminary results on yields and spectra at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 130 and 200 GeV. Production relative to negatively charged hadrons (h-) as well as thermal freeze-out and collective expansion are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, Contribution to Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, France, July 200

Drift velocity and gain in argon- and xenon-based mixtures

We present measurements of drift velocities and gains in gas mixtures based on Ar and Xe, with CO2, CH4, and N2 as quenchers, and compare them with calculations. In particular, we show the dependence of Ar- and Xe-CO2 drift velocities and gains on the amount of nitrogen contamination in the gas, which in real experiments may build up through leaks. A quantification of the Penning mechanism which contributes to the Townsend coefficients of a given gas mixture is proposed.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Nucl.Instrum.Meth. A. Data files available at http://www-alice.gsi.de/tr

The chemical equilibration volume: measuring the degree of thermalization

We address the issue of the degree of equilibrium achieved in a high energy heavy-ion collision. Specifically, we explore the consequences of incomplete strangeness chemical equilibrium. This is achieved over a volume V of the order of the strangeness correlation length and is assumed to be smaller than the freeze-out volume. Probability distributions of strange hadrons emanating from the system are computed for varying sizes of V and simple experimental observables based on these are proposed. Measurements of such observables may be used to estimate V and as a result the degree of strangeness chemical equilibration achieved. This sets a lower bound on the degree of kinetic equilibrium. We also point out that a determination of two-body correlations or second moments of the distributions are not sufficient for this estimation.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, revtex

Recombination of Shower Partons at High pTp_T in Heavy-Ion Collisions

A formalism for hadron production at high \pt in heavy-ion collisions has been developed such that all partons hadronize by recombination. The fragmentation of a hard parton is accounted for by the recombination of shower partons that it creates. Such shower partons can also recombine with the thermal partons to form particles that dominate over all other possible modes of hadronization in the $3<p_T<8$ GeV range. The results for the high \pt spectra of pion, kaon, and proton agree well with experiments. Energy loss of partons in the dense medium is taken into account on the average by an effective parameter by fitting data, and is found to be universal independent of the type of particles produced, as it should. Due to the recombination of thermal and shower partons, the structure of jets produced in nuclear collisions is different from that in $pp$ collisions. The consequence on same-side correlations is discussed.Comment: This revised version contains minor changes and a new figure

Strange Particle Production from SIS to LHC

>1A review of meson emission in heavy ion collisions at incident energies from SIS up to collider energies is presented. A statistical model assuming chemical equilibrium and local strangeness conservation (i.e. strangeness conservation per collision) explains most of the observed features. Emphasis is put onto the study of $K^+$ and $K^-$ emission at low incident energies. In the framework of this statistical model it is shown that the experimentally observed equality of $K^+$ and $K^-$ rates at ``threshold-corrected'' energies $\sqrt{s} - \sqrt{s_{th}}$ is due to a crossing of two excitation functions. Furthermore, the independence of the $K^+$ to $K^-$ ratio on the number of participating nucleons observed between SIS and RHIC is consistent with this model. It is demonstrated that the $K^-$ production at SIS energies occurs predominantly via strangeness exchange and this channel is approaching chemical equilibrium. The observed maximum in the $K^+/\pi^+$ excitation function is also seen in the ratio of strange to non-strange particle production. The appearance of this maximum around 30 $A\cdot$GeV is due to the energy dependence of the chemical freeze-out parameters $T$ and $\mu_B$.Comment: Presented at the International Workshop "On the Physics of the Quark-Gluon Plasma", Palaiseau, France, September 2001. 10 pages, 8 figure