Enhanced strange baryon production in Au+Au collisions compared to p+p at sqrts = 200 GeV

TL;DR

This paper reports that strange and multi-strange baryons are produced more abundantly in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV than in p+p collisions, with the enhancement increasing with baryon strangeness and collision centrality.

Contribution

It provides new measurements of strange baryon production in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energy, showing enhancement patterns and pT behavior compared to p+p interactions.

Findings

Strange baryon yields are enhanced in Au+Au relative to scaled p+p yields.

Enhancement increases with baryon strangeness and collision centrality.

At intermediate pT, strange baryons exceed binary scaling expectations.

Abstract

We report on the observed differences in production rates of strange and multi-strange baryons in Au+Au collisions at sqrts = 200 GeV compared to pp interactions at the same energy. The strange baryon yields in Au+Au collisions, then scaled down by the number of participating nucleons, are enhanced relative to those measured in pp reactions. The enhancement observed increases with the strangeness content of the baryon, and increases for all strange baryons with collision centrality. The enhancement is qualitatively similar to that observed at lower collision energy sqrts =17.3 GeV. The previous observations are for the bulk production, while at intermediate pT, 1 < pT< 4 GeV/c, the strange baryons even exceed binary scaling from pp yields.