Rate Equation Network for Baryon Production in High Energy Nuclear Collisions

P. Huovinen, J. I. Kapusta

Published 2003-10-20Version 1

We develop and solve a network of rate equations for the production of baryons and anti-baryons in high energy nuclear collisions. We include all members of the baryon octet and decuplet and allow for transformations among them. This network is solved during a relativistic 2+1 hydrodynamical expansion of the of the hot matter created in the collision. As an application we compare to the number of protons, lambdas, negative cascades, and omega baryons measured at mid-rapidity in central collisions of gold nuclei at 65 GeV per nucleon at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).