A relativistic transport model is used to study Xi- production in 2-11A GeV Au+Au collisions. Introducing the strangeness-exchange reactions between antikaons and hyperons as the sources for Xi-, we find that the cascade yield in these collisions is in reasonable agreement with the data. Although the Xi- abundance does not reach chemical equilibrium unless the cross section for strangeness-exchange reactions is enhanced by six times, it exhibits the strongest enhancement with increasing centrality of collision and with increasing beam energy.
Inclusive and semi-inclusive measurements are presented for antiproton ($bar{p}$) production in proton-nucleus collisions at the AGS. The inclusive yields per event increase strongly with increasing beam energy and decrease slightly with increasing target mass. The $bar{p}$ yield in 17.5 GeV/c p+Au collisions decreases with grey track multiplicity, $N_g$, for $N_g>0$, consistent with annihilation within the target nucleus. The relationship between $N_g$ and the number of scatterings of the proton in the nucleus is used to estimate the $bar{p}$ annihilation cross section in the nuclear medium. The resulting cross section is at least a factor of five smaller than the free $bar{p}-p$ annihilation cross section when assuming a small or negligible formation time. Only with a long formation time can the data be described with the free $bar{p}-p$ annihilation cross section.
Entropy production in the initial compression stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions from AGS to SPS energies is calculated within a three-fluid hydrodynamical model. The entropy per participating net baryon is found to increase smoothly and does not exhibit a jump or a plateau as in the 1-dimensional one-fluid shock model. Therefore, the excess of pions per participating net baryon in nucleus-nucleus collisions as compared to proton-proton reactions also increases smoothly with beam energy.
The $(K^-,K^+)$ $Xi^-$ production inclusive spectrum is reinvestigated in view of the very weak $Xi$-nucleus potential predicted by microscopic calculations with the SU$_6$ quark-model baryon-baryon interaction. The inclusive spectrum is evaluated by the semiclassical distorted wave (SCDW) method. The explicit comparison of the strength function with that of the Green-function method demonstrates the quantitative reliability of the SCDW approximation. It is presumed that the presently available data at the $Xi$ production threshold region does not necessarily imply the attractive strength of about 15 MeV for the $Xi$-nucleus potential in a conventional Woods-Saxon form. Instead, an almost zero potential is preferable.
Dilepton production in $pp$ and $Au+Au$ nucleus-nucleus collisions at $sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV as well as in $In+In$ and $Pb+Au$ at 158 A$cdot$GeV is studied within the microscopic HSD transport approach. A comparison to the data from the PHENIX Collaboration at RHIC shows that standard in-medium effects of the $rho, omega$ vector mesons - compatible with the NA60 data for $In+In$ at 158 A$cdot$GeV and the CERES data for $Pb+Au$ at 158 A$cdot$GeV - do not explain the large enhancement observed in the invariant mass regime from 0.2 to 0.5 GeV in $Au+Au$ collisions at $sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV relative to $pp$ collisions.
Directed flow of deuterons, tritons, $^3$He, and $^4$He is studied in Au+Au collisions at a beam momentum of about 10.8 $A$ GeV/c. Flow of all particles is analyzed as a function of transverse momentum for different centralities of the collision. The directed flow signal, $v_1(p_t)$, is found to increase with particle mass. This mass dependence is strongest in the projectile rapidity region.