Baryon-strangeness correlations: a diagnostic of strongly interacting matter

Abstract

The correlation between baryon number and strangeness elucidates the nature of strongly interacting matter, such as that formed transiently in high-energy nuclear collisions. This diagnostic can be extracted theoretically from lattice QCD calculations and experimentally from event-by-event fluctuations. The analysis of present lattice results above the critical temperature severely limits the presence of q-qbar bound states, thus supporting a picture of independent (quasi)quarks.

4 pages, 2 eps figures, Revised: several sign typos have been fixed (the PRL version is correct)