Self-similarity of strangeness production in pp collisions at RHIC

TL;DR

This paper analyzes strange particle production in proton-proton collisions at RHIC using z-scaling, revealing self-similarity and providing insights into constituent interactions and energy loss mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic scenario within the z-scaling framework to study strange particle production and its self-similar properties in pp collisions at RHIC.

Findings

Self-similarity observed in strange particle production data.

Dependence of constituent energy loss on transverse momentum and strangeness.

z-scaling effectively describes the transverse momentum spectra.

Abstract

New experimental data on transverse momentum spectra of strange particles (KS0, K-, K*, phi,...) produced in pp collisions at sqrt s = 200 GeV obtained by the STAR and PHENIX collaborations at RHIC are analysed in the framework of z-scaling approach. Scaling properties of the data z-presentation are illustrated. Self-similarity of strange particle production is discussed. A microscopic scenario of constituent interactions developed within the z-scaling approach is used to study constituent energy loss, proton momentum fraction and recoil mass in dependence on the transverse momentum, strangeness, and mass of the inclusive particle. The obtained results can be useful for understanding strangeness origin, for searching for new physics with strange probes and can serve as a benchmark for complex analyses of self-similar features of strange production in heavy ion collisions.