Strange Resonance Production: Probing Chemical and Thermal Freeze-out in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Abstract

The production and the observability of $Λ(1520)$, $K^0(892)$ $Φ$ and $Δ(1232)$ hadron resonances in central Pb+Pb collisions at 160 AGeV is addressed. The rescattering probabilities of the resonance decay products in the systems evolution are studied. Strong changes in the reconstructable particle yields and spectra between chemical and thermal freeze-out are estimated. Abundances and spectra of reconstructable resonances are predicted.