Cascade production in heavy-ion collisions at SIS energies
Abstract
Production of the doubly strange
Ξ
baryon in heavy-ion collisions at \textrm{SIS} energies is studied in a relativistic transport model that includes perturbatively the strangeness-exchange reactions
K
¯
Λ→πΞ
and
K
¯
Σ→πΞ
. Taking the cross sections for these reactions from the predictions of a hadronic model, we find that the
Ξ
yield is about
10
−4
in central collisions of
Ni +
58
Ni at
E/A=1.93
\textrm{GeV}. The
Ξ
yield is further found to be more sensitive to the magnitude of the cross sections for strangeness-exchange reactions than to the medium effects due to modified kaon properties. We have also made predictions for
Ξ
production in Au+Au collisions at energies from 1 to 2 GeV/nucleon.