Centrality dependence of strangeness enhancement in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions: A core-corona effect
- SUBATECH, Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et des Technologies Associees, Universite de Nantes, IN2P3/CNRS, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, F-44072 Nantes, Cedex 03 (France)
In ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions, the multiplicity of multistrange baryons per participating nucleon increases with centrality in a different fashion for different systems and energies. At RHIC, for copper+copper (CuCu) collisions the increase is much steeper than for gold-gold (AuAu) collisions. We show that this system size dependence is due to a core-corona effect: the relative importance of the corona as compared to the core (thermalized matter) contribution varies and the contribution of a corona nucleon to the multiplicity differs from that of a core nucleon. {phi} mesons follow--as all hadrons--the same trend, but the difference between core and corona multiplicity is relatively small, and therefore the CuCu and AuAu results are quite similar. This simple geometrical explanation makes also a strong case in favor of the validity of Glauber geometry in the peripheral regions of ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions, which is crucial for understanding the early evolution of the system.
- OSTI ID:
- 21289940
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Vol. 79, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.79.064907; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2813
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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