Spin Experimentation with Unpolarized Colliding Beams at the LHC

A brief recollection of the problems related to a significant hyperon polarization observed in pp-collisions is given with an emphasis on the general role of spin in the dynamics of hadron interactions. The old, unsolved problem of the observation of a significant hyperon polarization can provide new insights as a result of the measurements of energies at the LHC; in combination with other measurements, these can be used to tag the QGP formation in pp-collisions with colliding beams. Polarization studies in the processes of hyperon production do not require the use of polarized beams or targets and can be performed in the existing experimental environment at the LHC. Model predictions based on the chiral dynamics and pictures of the impact parameter are presented for the illustration of a possible dynamical mechanism that leads to a hyperon polarization.

Perspective study of strangeness with the MPD detector at NICA

The Nuclotron-based Ion Collider facility (NICA) is a new high luminosity machine which is under construction in Dubna (Russia). Heavy-ion collisions at the NICA are well suitable to investigate multiple problems of strongly interacting matter, including its Equation of State, phase transformations, modifications of hadron properties in dense medium, as well as critical phenomena. The MPD detector is a spectrometer with a large uniform acceptance capable of momentum measurement and particle identification in the high multiplicity environment of heavy-ion interactions. In this paper, the MPD performance to measure the hyperon production and the excitation function of the kaon-to-pion ratio in Au[Formula: see text]Au collisions at NICA energies is reported.