https://doi.org/10.1007/s100529800825
Theoretical physics
Strangeness production in nuclear interactions at 200 A GeV and the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions
1
Department of Physics, Comenius University, SK-842 15, Bratislava, Slovakia
2
GRPHE, Universite de Haute Alsace, Mulhouse, France
3
Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire, Univ. Blaise Pascal, F-63177, Aubiere, France
Received:
15
September
1997
Revised:
9
December
1997
Published online: 16 September 2013
Data on mean numbers of A, Ā, K’s and on the total number 
of pairs of strange valence quarks in final state hadrons in hadronic and nuclear collisions at CERN-SPS energies are studied as a function of the mean number < n
coll > of nucleon-nucleon collisions. Results give indications of an almost linear dependence over most of the region of < n
coll >. This in turn points out to strangeness being produced mostly in the central rapidity region of nucleon-nucleon collisions by a mechanism similar to a hard or semi-hard process. The available data are extrapolated to Pb+Pb interactions by two simple models, leading to 
. Observations exceeding these values of 
would give evidence of the onset of a new dynamical regime in Pb+Pb interactions.
© Springer-Verlag, 1998
