Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 092301 (2002) [6 pages]

Midrapidity Λ and Λ̅ Production in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt[sNN]=130  GeV

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C. Adler et al. STAR Collaboration
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Received 22 March 2002; published 12 August 2002

We report the first measurement of strange (Λ) and antistrange (Λ̅ ) baryon production from sqrt[sNN]=130  GeV Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Rapidity density and transverse mass distributions at midrapidity are presented as a function of centrality. The yield of Λ and Λ̅ hyperons is found to be approximately proportional to the number of negative hadrons. The production of Λ̅ hyperons relative to negative hadrons increases very rapidly with transverse momentum. The magnitude of the increase cannot be described by existing hadronic string fragmentation models alone.


©2002 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.092301
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.092301
PACS: 25.75.Dw

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