1 research outputs found
Strangeness in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions
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 useful
to explore thermalization, flow and the post-equilibrium stage in
ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions.Comment: 13 pages LaTeX including 6 postscript figures; needs style files
espcrc1,floatfig,epsfig. Invited talk presented at 6th International
Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions at Gatlinburg, June 2-6, 1997. To be
published in Proceedings in Nuclear Physics