Baryon-strangeness correlations: a diagnostic of strongly interacting matter

The correlation between baryon number and strangeness elucidates the nature of strongly interacting matter. This diagnostic can be extracted theoretically from lattice QCD calculations and experimentally from event-by-event fluctuations. The analysis of present lattice results above the critical temperature severely limits the presence of bound states, thus supporting a picture of independent (quasi)quarks. Details may be found in [V. Koch, A. Majumder and J. Randrup, arXiv:nucl-th/0505052, Phys. Rev. Lett. in print]. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]