Double strangeness $\Xi^{-}$ production as a probe of nuclear equation of state at high densities

TL;DR

This study uses a transport model to show that double strangeness $ ext{Xi}^{-}$ production in heavy-ion collisions is highly sensitive to the nuclear equation of state at high densities, offering a new probe for dense nuclear matter properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that $ ext{Xi}^{-}$ yields are more sensitive to the EoS than single strangeness, providing a novel method to investigate the high-density nuclear equation of state.

Findings

$ ext{Xi}^{-}$ yields are larger with a soft EoS.

Sensitivity of $ ext{Xi}^{-}$ to EoS exceeds that of single strangeness.

Yields ratio of $ ext{Xi}^{-}$ to light systems remains highly sensitive to EoS.

Abstract

Double strangeness $\Xi^{-}$ production in Au+Au collisions at 2, 4, and 6 GeV/nucleon incident beam energies is studied with the pure hadron cascade version of a multi-phase transport model. It is found that due to larger nuclear compression, the model with the soft equation of state (EoS) gives larger yields of both single strangeness ($K^{+}$ and $\Lambda+\Sigma^{0}$) and double strangeness $\Xi^{-}$. The sensitivity of the double strangeness $\Xi^{-}$ to the EoS is evidently larger than that of $K^{+}$ or $\Lambda+\Sigma^{0}$ since the phase-space distribution of produced $\Xi^{-}$ is more compact compared to those of the single strangeness. The larger sensitivity of the yields ratio of $\Xi^{-}$ to the EoS from heavy and light systems is kept compared to that of the single strangeness. The study of $\Xi^{-}$ production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions provides an alternative for the ongoing heavy-ion collision program at facilities worldwide for identifying the EoS at high densities, which is relevant to the investigation of the phase boundary and onset of deconfinement of dense nuclear matter.