Studying Strangeness Production with HADES

Abstract

Abstract. The High-Acceptance DiElectron Spectrometer (HADES) operates in the 1 -2A GeV energy regime in fixed target experiments to explore baryon-rich strongly interacting matter in heavy-ion collisions at moderate temperatures with rare and penetrating probes. We present results on the production of strange hadrons below their respective NN threshold energy in Au+Au collisions at 1.23A GeV ( √ s NN = 2.4 GeV). Special emphasis is put on the enhanced feed-down contribution of φ mesons to the inclusive yield of K − and its implication on the measured spectral shape of K − . Furthermore, we investigate global properties of the system, confronting the measured hadron yields and transverse mass spectra with a Statistical Hadronization Model (SHM) and a blastwave parameterization, respectively. These supplement the world data of the chemical and kinetic freeze-out temperatures.