Strange Cluster Formation In Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions PDF Download

We address a number of issues related to the production of strangeness in high energy heavy ion collisions, including the possibility that stable states of multi-strange hyperonic or quark matter might exist, and the prospects that such objects may be created and detected in the laboratory. We make use of events generated by the cascade code ARC to estimate the rapidity distribution dN/dy of strange clusters produced in Si+Au and Au+Au collisions at AGS energies. These calculations are performed in a simple coalescence model, which yields a consistent description of the strange cluster (d, [sup 3]HE, [sup 3]H, [sup 4]He) production at these energies. If a doubly strange, weakly bound [Lambda][Lambda] dibaryon exists, we find that it is produced rather copiously in Au+Au collisions, with dN/dy [approximately]0.1 at raid-rapidity. If one adds another non-strange or strange baryon to a cluster, the production rate decreases by roughly one or two orders of magnitude, respectively. For instance, we predict that the hypernucleus [sub [Lambda][Lambda]][sup 6]He should have dN/dy [approximately]5 [times] 10[sup [minus]6] for Au+Au central collisions. It should be possible to measure the successive [Lambda] [yields] p[pi][minus] weak decays of this object. We comment on the possibility that conventional multi-strange hypernuclei may serve as doorway states'' for the production of stable configurations of strange quark matter, if such states exist.