Statistical Hadronization of Multistrange Particles

Abstract

We study multistrange hadrons produced in NA49 and STAR experiments at center of mass energies varying from \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 7.61 GeV to 200 GeV. We show that the yields of {\Xi}, {\Xi}-bar and {\phi} can help to constrain the physical conditions present in the hot dense fireball source of these multistrange hadrons created in heavy ion collision. We address the question of chemical equilibrium of individual quark flavors before and after hadronization and offer a few predictions for LHC.