Hypermatter - Properties and Formation in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions

Abstract

The extension of the Periodic System into hitherto unexplored domains - antimatter and hypermatter - is discussed. Starting from an analysis of hyperon and single hypernuclear properties we investigate the structure of multi-hyperon objects (MEMOs) using an extended relativistic meson field theory. These are contrasted with multi-strange quark states (strangelets). Their production mechanism is studied for relativistic collisions of heavy ions from present day experiments at AGS and SPS to future opportunities at RHIC and LHC. It is pointed out that absolutely stable hypermatter is unlikely to be produced in heavy ion collisions. New attention should be focused on short lived metastable hyperclusters ($τ\propto 10^{-10}$s) and on intensity interferometry of multi-strange-baryon correlations.

33 pages, many Postscript figures. Some pictures (which were too large to archive) can be obtained by request from the Authors. E-mail: bleicher@th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de