Comparative analysis of strange meson production in heavy ion collisions

Abstract

Abstract The study of deconfinement state of nuclear matter called quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and phase transition of QGP to hadronic gas is the main goal of high energy physics. Some of the important signatures of QGP formation in heavy-ion collisions include strangeness enhancement at intermediate values of the transverse momentum (ρT ) and a jet quenching effect at high ρT values. Nuclear modification factors (RAB ) for light hadrons are used to quantify these effects. The K *0 and φ mesons can serve as a good probes to investigate QGP properties, because these mesons contain (anti)strange quark and its yields can be measured in a wide ρT range. Comparison of experimental data with theoretical model calculations is important for understanding the evolution of heavy-ion collision. One of the most commonly used event generators to describe experimental results of collider experiments is Pythia8. This paper shows, that Pythia8 predicts RAB values of K *0 and φ less than RAB values in experimental data. Consequently, additional (hidden)strange particle production mechanisms are involved.