Study of baryon number transport dynamics and strangeness conservation effects using $$\Omega$$ -hadron correlations

Abstract

In nuclear collisions at RHIC energies, an excess of \(\Omega\) hyperons over \(\bar{\Omega }\) is observed, indicating that \(\Omega\) has a net baryon number despite s and \(\bar{s}\) quarks being produced in pairs. The baryon number in \(\Omega\) may have been transported from the incident nuclei and/or produced in the baryon-pair production of \(\Omega\) with other types of anti-hyperons such as \(\bar{\Xi }\). To investigate these two scenarios, we propose to measure the correlations between \(\Omega\) and K and between \(\Omega\) and anti-hyperons. We use two versions, the default and string-melting, of a multiphase transport (AMPT) model to illustrate the method for measuring the correlation and to demonstrate the general shape of the correlation. We present the \(\Omega\)-hadron correlations from simulated Au+Au collisions at \(\sqrt{s_\text{NN}} = 7.7\) and \(14.6 \ \textrm{GeV}\) and discuss the dependence on the collision energy and on the hadronization scheme in these two AMPT versions. These correlations can be used to explore the mechanism of baryon number transport and the effects of baryon number and strangeness conservation on nuclear collisions.