First measurement of the strange particles Rcp nuclear modification factors in heavy-ion collisions at the SPS

The NA57 experiment has measured the pt distributions of K0s, Lambda, and antiLambda particles in fixed-target Pb-Pb interactions at sqrt(s_{NN})=17.3 GeV as a function of the collision centrality. In this paper we study the central-to-peripheral nuclear modification factors and compare them to other measurements and to theoretical predictions.Comment: Contribution to the poster session of the Quark Matter 2005 Conference. To be published in Acta Physica Hungarica A, Heavy Ion Physic

Recent Results on Strangeness Production at RHIC

Due to its large acceptance, the STAR experiment has acquired a wealth of data on strangeness production for a variety of collisions systems and energies, from p+p to Au+Au. By using the yields and spectra, we address the evolution of the bulk system, including strangeness enhancement and the flavour dependence of radial and elliptic flow. Utilising the fact that we can identify strange baryons and mesons, we investigate different hadronization mechanisms in the intermediate and high p$_{T}$ regions. The ratios of the particle yields, measured to high p$_{T}$, are used to further investigate the range and applicability of the previously reported anomalous baryon production. We also study two-particle azimuthal correlations of identified particles in order to investigate any flavour dependence of jet fragmentation in the available p$_{T}$ range. Data was presented for a number of different collision systems and energies.Comment: Proceedings of SQM'06 Conference, LA, 2006 (submitted to J. Phys. G

Strangeness Report

The paper provides a short report on strangeness production in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collision, with the main stress on strange particle abundances.Comment: Proceedings of Quark Matter 200

Importance of reaction volume in hadronic collisions: Canonical enhancement

We study the canonical flavor enhancement arising from exact conservation of strangeness, and charm flavor. Both the theoretical motivation, and the practical consequences are explored. We argue using qualitative theoretical arguments and quantitative evaluation, that this proposal to reevaluate strangeness signature of quark--gluon plasma is not able to explain the majority of available experimental results.Comment: 14 pages including 6 figures, submitted to Journal of Physics G Presented at: Strange Quark Matter, September 2001, Frankfur

Particle Production at the SPS and the QCD Phase Diagram

Recent results of particle production in the energy regime of the CERN-SPS are reviewed. In order to collect information on the properties of the QCD phase diagram systematic studies of the system size and the energy dependence of particle production in heavy ion collisions have been performed. Net-baryon distributions and results on strangeness production are discussed. The system size dependence of many observables can be understood in the core-corona approach, which has implications on the possibility to use system size as a control parameter to study different areas of the phase diagram. Recent attempts to search for a critical point, such as multiplicity fluctuations and the transverse mass dependence of anti-baryon/baryon ratios are reviewed.Comment: Proccedings of 26th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, 9 pages, 7 figure

Omega and AntiOmega production in Pb+Pb and p+p collisions at 30, 40 and 158 AGeV

We report preliminary results on Omega and AntiOmega production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 30, 40 and 158 AGeV and p + p interactions at 158 GeV. The midrapidity AntiOmega/Omega ratio is estimated to be 0.45 +- 0.05 and 0.41 +- 0.18 for central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 and 40 AGeV, respectively. The corresponding value for 158 GeV p+p interactions is 0.67 +- 0.62. For central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 AGeV fully corrected distributions are obtained. The inverse slope parameters of the transverse mass spectrum and total yields are T(Omega) = 276 +- 23 MeV, = 0.47 +- 0.07 and T(AntiOmega) = 285 +- 39 MeV, = 0.15 +- 0.02.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of "Strangeness in Quark Matter 2003" (March 2003, Atlantic Beach NC, USA), to be published in Journal of Physics G., 6 pages, 6 figure

Strangeness and the discovery of quark-gluon plasma

Strangeness flavor yield s and the entropy yield S are the observables of the deconfined quark-gluon state of matter which can be studied in the entire available experimental energy range at AGS, SPS, RHIC, and, in near future, at the LHC energy range. We present here a comprehensive analysis of strange, soft hadron production as function of energy and reaction volume. We discuss the physical properties of the final state and argue how evidence about the primordial QGP emerges.Comment: 16 pages: Invited talk at 5th International Conference on Physics and Astrophysics of Quark Gluon Plasma, February 8 - 12, 2005, Salt Lake City, Kolkata, India, to appear in: Journal of Physics: Conference Serie

Space-time analysis of reaction at RHIC

Space-time information about the Au-Au collisions produced at RHIC are key tools to understand the evolution of the system and especially assess the presence of collective behaviors. Using a parameterization of the system's final state relying on collective expansion, we show that pion source radii can be tied together with transverse mass spectra and elliptic flow within the same framework. The consistency between these different measures provide a solid ground to understand the characteristics of collective flow and especially the possible peculiar behavior of particles such as Xi, Omega or phi. The validity of the short time scales that are extracted from fits to the pion source size is also addressed. The wealth of new data that will soon be available from Au-Au collisions at sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV, will provide a stringet test of the space-time analysis framework developped in these proceedings.Comment: Invited talk given at the SQM2003 conference (March 2003), to be published in Journal of Physics G. 10 pages, 3 figure

Multiple Interactions and the Structure of Beam Remnants

Recent experimental data have established some of the basic features of multiple interactions in hadron-hadron collisions. The emphasis is therefore now shifting, to one of exploring more detailed aspects. Starting from a brief review of the current situation, a next-generation model is developed, wherein a detailed account is given of correlated flavour, colour, longitudinal and transverse momentum distributions, encompassing both the partons initiating perturbative interactions and the partons left in the beam remnants. Some of the main features are illustrated for the Tevatron and the LHC.Comment: 69pp, 33 figure

A comparison of statistical hadronization models

We investigate the sensitivity of fits of hadron spectra produced in heavy ion collisions to the choice of statistical hadronization model. We start by giving an overview of statistical model ambiguities, and what they tell us about freeze-out dynamics. We then use Montecarlo generated data to determine sensitivity to model choice. We fit the statistical hadronization models under consideration to RHIC data, and find that a comparison $\chi^2$ fits can shed light on some presently contentious questions.Comment: Proceedings for SQM2003 [7th Int. Conf. on Strangeness in Quark Matter (Atlantic Beach, NC, USA, Mar 12-17, 2003)], to be published in Journal of Physics G (Typos corrected, reference added