Multistrange baryon production in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Using a multiphase transport model, we study the production of multistrange (anti)baryons from the hadronic matter formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The mechanism we introduce is the strangeness-exchange reactions between antikaons and hyperons for strange particle production and between kaons and antihyperons for strange antiparticle production. We find that these reactions contribute significantly to the production of multistrange baryons and antibaryons in heavy ion collisions at SPS energies, which has been found to be appreciably enhanced. We have also made predictions for multistrange baryon and antibaryon production in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and found a similar enhancement. The (anti)particle mass dependence of inverse slope parameters extracted from their transverse mass spectra in the transport model exhibit similar trend as in the available experimental data at both SPS and RHIC energies. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.