The correlation between baryon number and strangeness elucidates the nature of strongly interacting matter, such as that formed transiently in high-energy nuclear collisions. This diagnostic can be extracted theoretically from lattice QCD calculations and experimentally from event-by-event fluctuations. The analysis of present lattice results above the critical temperature severely limits the presence of q-qbar bound states, thus supporting a picture of independent (quasi)quarks.
This talk is devoted to review the field of strangeness production in (ultra-)relativistic heavy ion collisions within our present theoretical understanding. Historically there have been (at least) three major ideas for the interest in the production of strange hadronic particles: (1) mass modification of the kaons in a (baryon-)dense environment; (2) (early) K+ - production probes the nuclear equation of state (EoS); (3) enhanced strangeness production especially in the (multi-)strange (anti-)baryon channels as a signal of quark gluon plasma (QGP) formation. As a guideline for the discussion I employ the extensive experience with microscopic hadronic transport models. In addition, I elaborate on the recent idea of antihyperon production solely by means of multi-mesonic fusion-type reactions.
Baryon-strangeness correlation (C$_{BS}$) has been investigated with a multi-phase transport model (AMPT) in $^{197}$Au + $^{197}$Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. The centrality dependence of C$_{BS}$ is presented within the model, from partonic phase to hadronic matter. We find that the system still reserve partial predicted signatures of C$_{BS}$ after parton coalescence. But after hadronic rescattering, the predicted signatures will be obliterated completely. So it seems that both coalescence hadronization process and hadronic rescattering are responsible for the disappearance of the C$_{BS}$ signatures.
The thermodynamic geometry formalism is applied to strongly interacting matter to estimate the deconfinement temperature. The curved thermodynamic metric for Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is evaluated on the basis of lattice data, whereas the hadron resonance gas model is used for the hadronic sector. Since the deconfinement transition is a crossover, the geometric criterion used to define the mbox{(pseudo-)critical} temperature, as a function of the baryonchemical potential $mu_B$, is $R(T,mu_B)=0$, where $R$ is the scalar curvature. The (pseudo-)critical temperature, $T_c$, resulting from QCD thermodynamic geometry is in good agreement with lattice and phenomenological freeze-out temperature estimates. The crossing temperature, $T_h$, evaluated by the hadron resonance gas, which suffers of some model dependence, is larger than $T_c$ (about $20%$) signaling remnants of confinement above the transition.
Kaon production in pion-nucleon collisions in nuclear matter is studied in the resonance model. To evaluate the in-medium modification of the reaction amplitude as a function of the baryonic density we introduce relativistic, mean-field potentials for the initial, final and intermediate mesonic and baryonic states. These vector and scalar potentials were calculated using the quark-meson coupling (QMC) model. The in-medium kaon production cross sections in pion-nucleon interactions for reaction channels with $Lambda$ and $Sigma$ hyperons in the final state were calculated at the baryonic densities appropriate to relativistic heavy ion collisions. Contrary to earlier work which has not allowed for the change of the cross section in medium, we find that the data for kaon production are consistent with a repulsive $K^+$-nucleus potential.
Ultrarelativistic collisions between heavy nuclei briefly generate the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a new state of matter characterized by deconfined partons last seen microseconds after the Big Bang. The properties of the QGP are of intense interest, and a large community has developed over several decades, to produce, measure and understand this primordial plasma. The plasma is now recognized to be a strongly-coupled fluid with remarkable properties, and hydrodynamics is commonly used to quantify and model the system. An important feature of any fluid is its vorticity, related to the local angular momentum density; however, this degree of freedom has received relatively little attention because no experimental signals of vorticity had been detected. Thanks to recent high-statistics datasets from experiments with precision tracking and complete kinemetic coverage at collider energies, hyperon spin polarization measurements have begun to uncover the vorticity of the QGP created at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The injection of this new degree of freedom into a relatively mature field of research represents an enormous opportunity to generate new insights into the physics of the QGP. The community has responded with enthusiasm, and this book (to be published as a volume of Lecture Notes in Physics series by Springer) represents some of the diverse lines of inquiry into aspects of strongly interacting matter under rotation.