Perspective study of strangeness with the MPD detector at NICA

Abstract

The Nuclotron-based Ion Collider facility (NICA) is a new high luminosity machine which is under construction in Dubna (Russia). Heavy-ion collisions at the NICA are well suitable to investigate multiple problems of strongly interacting matter, including its Equation of State, phase transformations, modifications of hadron properties in dense medium, as well as critical phenomena. The MPD detector is a spectrometer with a large uniform acceptance capable of momentum measurement and particle identification in the high multiplicity environment of heavy-ion interactions. In this paper, the MPD performance to measure the hyperon production and the excitation function of the kaon-to-pion ratio in Au[Formula: see text]Au collisions at NICA energies is reported.