The heavy-ion physics programme at the CERN Omega spectrometer

Abstract

In recent years, a series of experiments at the CERN OMEGA spectrometer (WA85, WA94, WA97) have studied the production of strange particles (kaons, Λ , Ξ – , Ω – and their antiparticles) in nucleus–nucleus and proton–nucleus reactions. I summarize the results of WA85 and WA94 and the current status of the WA97 analysis: the production of strange particles is enhanced when going from proton–nucleus to nucleus–nucleus collisions, and the effect is larger for particles of higher strangeness content, as expected in the case of quark–gluon plasma formation. I illustrate the plans for a continuation of this line of research after the closing of the OMEGA spectrometer. 6.