Near-threshold production of the multi-strange $Ξ^-$ hyperon

Chung, P.; Ajitanand, N. N.; Alexander, J. M.; Anderson, M.; Best, D.; Brady, F. P.; Case, T.; Caskey, W.; Cebra, D.; Chance, J. L.; Cole, B.; Crowe, K.; Das, A. C.; Draper, J. E.; Gilkes, M. L.; Gushue, S.; Heffner, M.; Hirsch, A. S.; Hjort, E. L.; Holzmann, W.; Huo, L.; Issah, M.; Justice, M.; Kaplan, M.; Keane, D.; Kintner, J. C.; Klay, J.; Krofcheck, D.; Lacey, R. A.; Lauret, J.; Lisa, M. A.; Liu, H.; Liu, Y. M.; Milan, J.; McGrath, R.; Milosevich, Z.; Odyniec, G.; Olson, D. L.; Panitkin, S.; Porile, N. T.; Rai, G.; Ritter, H. G.; Romero, J. L.; Scharenberg, R.; Srivastava, B.; Stone, N. T. B; Symons, T. J. M.; Taranenko, A.; Whitfield, J.; Wienold, T.; Witt, R.; Wood, L.; Zhang, W. N.; Oeschler, H.

Near-threshold production of the multi-strange $Ξ^-$ hyperon

Authors

Description

The yield for the multi-strange $Ξ^{-}$ hyperon has been measured in 6 AGeV Au+Au collisions via reconstruction of its decay products $π^{-}$ and $Λ$, the latter also being reconstructed from its daughter tracks of $π^{-}$ and p. The measurement is rather close to the threshold for $Ξ^{-}$ production and therefore provides an important test of model predictions. The measured yield for $Ξ^{-}$ and $Λ$ are compared for several centralities. In central collisions the $Ξ^{-}$ yield is found to be in excellent agreement with statistical and transport model predictions, suggesting that multi-strange hadron production approaches chemical equilibrium in high baryon density nuclear matter.
Submitted to PRL