Strangeness Saturation: Energy- and System-Size Dependence

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strangeness saturation varies with energy and system size in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, revealing that saturation increases with participant number and differs between collision types, influenced by nuclear density.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of strangeness saturation across different collision systems and energies, highlighting the dependence on participant number and nuclear density effects.

Findings

Strangeness saturation increases with the number of participants.

Saturation in lighter nuclei's central collisions differs from heavier nuclei's peripheral collisions.

Nuclear density may influence the degree of strangeness saturation.

Abstract

Relativistic heavy-ion collisions lead to a final state which has a higher degree of strangeness saturation than those of elementary collisions. A systematic analysis of this phenomenon, based on the strangeness saturation factor, is made for C+C, Si+Si and Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN SPS collider and for Au+Au collisions at RHIC energies. Strangeness saturation is shown to increase with the number of participants within a colliding system, at both CERN SPS and RHIC energies. The saturation observed in central collisions of lighter nuclei deviates from that seen in peripheral collisions of heavier nuclei with an equivalent participant number, which could be due to the difference in nuclear density.