David Silvermyr
Senior lecturer
Enhanced production of multi-strange hadrons in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions
Author
Summary, in English
At sufficiently high temperature and energy density, nuclear matter undergoes a transition to a phase in which quarks and gluons are not confined: the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Such an exotic state of strongly interacting quantum chromodynamics matter is produced in the laboratory in heavy nuclei high-energy collisions, where an enhanced production of strange hadrons is observed. Strangeness enhancement, originally proposed as a signature of QGP formation in nuclear collisions, is more pronounced for multi-strange baryons. Several effects typical of heavy-ion phenomenology have been observed in high-multiplicity proton-proton (pp) collisions, but the enhanced production of multi-strange particles has not been reported so far. Here we present the first observation of strangeness enhancement in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions. We find that the integrated yields of strange and multi-strange particles, relative to pions, increases significantly with the event charged-particle multiplicity. The measurements are in remarkable agreement with the p-Pb collision results, indicating that the phenomenon is related to the final system created in the collision. In high-multiplicity events strangeness production reaches values similar to those observed in Pb-Pb collisions, where a QGP is formed. © 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
Department/s
- eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration
- Particle and nuclear physics
Publishing year
2017
Language
English
Pages
535-539
Publication/Series
Nature Physics
Volume
13
Issue
6
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Topic
- Physical Sciences
Keywords
- Heavy ions
- Lead alloys
- Quantum theory
- Charged particle multiplicities
- High-energy collisions
- Nuclear collisions
- Proton proton collisions
- Quantum chromodynamics
- Quark-gluon plasma
- Strangeness enhancement
- Strangeness production
- Hadrons
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1745-2473