Strangeness Production in the Quark-Gluon Plasma

Abstract

Rates are calculated for the processes $\mathrm{gg}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}s\overline{s}$ and $u\overline{u}$,$d\overline{d}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}s\overline{s}$ in highly excited quarkgluon plasma. For temperature $T>~160$ MeV the strangeness abundance saturates during the lifetime (\ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}23}$ sec) of the plasma created in high-energy nuclear collisions. The chemical equilibration time for gluons and light quarks is found to be less than ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}24}$ sec.