| PRODUCTION IN Pb-Pb AND p-Pb INTERACTIONS AT 158 A (2008) | |||||||||||||
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| The WA85, WA94 and WA97 experiments at the CERN OMEGA spectrometer have studied the production of strange and multistrange particles in both nucleus-nucleus and protonnucleus reactions as a possible signature of a quark-gluon plasma phase. Recent results from WA97 on , \Xi and\Omega production in Pb-Pb and p-Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c are presented. The enhancement of strange baryon production, observed when going from proton to nucleus initiated reactions, will be discussed. 1 Introduction In collisions of heavy nuclei at relativistic energy the nuclear matter is compressed and significantly excited. In such extreme conditions novel physical phenomena can arise and it is believed that the quarks confined in hadrons can dissolve forming a macroscopic space time region filled with free quarks and gluons: the quark gluon plasma state of matter (QGP). One of the sensitive signatures for the phase transition to a QGP state is the enhanced yield of strange particles in nucleus-nucleus ... | |||||||||||||
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