Overpopulation of Omega; in pp collisions: a way to distinguish statistical hadronization from string dynamics.
The Omega/Omega ratio originating from string decays is predicted to be larger than unity in proton-proton interactions at SPS energies ( E(lab) = 160 GeV). The antiomega dominance increases with decreasing beam energy. This surprising behavior is caused by the combinatorics of quark-antiquark production in small and low-mass strings. Since this behavior is not found in a statistical description of hadron production in proton-proton collisions, it may serve as a key observable to probe the hadronization mechanism in such collisions.
Bleicher
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SUBATECH, Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et des Technologies Associées, University of Nantes-IN2P3/CNRS-Ecole des Mines de Nantes, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, F-44072 Nantes Cedex 03, France.
Liu
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FM
Keränen
A
A
Aichelin
J
J
Bass
S A
SA
Becattini
F
F
Redlich
K
K
Werner
K
K