Antibaryon production in hot and dense nuclear matter Original Research Article

The production of antibaryons is calculated in a microscopic transport approach employing multiple-meson fusion reactions according to detailed balance relations with respect to baryon–antibaryon annihilation. It is found that the abundancies of antiprotons as observed from peripheral to central collisions of Pb+Pb at the SPS and Au+Au at the AGS can approximately be described on the basis of multiple interactions of ‘formed’ hadronic states which drive the system to chemical equilibrium by flavor exchange or quark rearrangement reactions.