Kaon production at subthreshold and threshold energies

Abstract

We summarize what we have learnt about the kaon production in nucleus-nucleus collisions in the last decade. We will address three questions: a) Is the $K^{+}$ production sensitive to the nuclear equation of state? b) How can it happen that at the same excess energy the same number of $K^{+}$ and $K^{-}$ are produced in heavy ion collisions although the elementary cross section in pp collisions differs by orders of magnitudes? and c) Why kaons don't flow?

Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures, contribution to Strange Quark Matter 2000