PROPERTIES AND PRODUCTION OF HYPERNUCLEI IN RELATIVISTIC ION REACTIONS

The mechanisms leading to the production of light- and intermediate-mass nuclei and hypernuclei in reactions initiated by relativistic nuclei are under study with dynamical and statistical models. We prove a novel mechanism responsible for combining nucleons and hyperons into complex nuclei in central collisions: The intermediate excited clusters of baryons can stochastically be formed at a low sub-nuclear density after the dynamical expansion of the nuclear matter. One can describe the nucleation process within the statistical approach as the disintegration of such clusters. This approach is able to describe the experimental data measured in central collisions that was not possible with other methods. The important consequence of this novel mechanism is the correlations of the produced nuclear species.