<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>φ</mml:mi></mml:math>-Meson Production as a Probe of the Quark-Gluon Plasma

Abstract

The formation of the quark-gluon plasma in relativistic nuclear collisions may be determined by enhanced production of $\ensuremath{\varphi}$ mesons. This enhancement would result from the absence of the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka suppression which inhibits $\ensuremath{\varphi}$ production in ordinary $p\ensuremath{-}p$ and $\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{-}p$ collisions, and from a large abundance of strange quarks in the plasma. The $\ensuremath{\varphi}$ will not rescatter significantly in the subsequent expanding hadronic phase and would thereby retain information on the conditions of the hot plasma.