Event-by-event analysis of baryon-strangeness correlations: Pinning down the critical temperature and volume of quark-gluon-plasma formation

The recently proposed baryon-strangeness correlation (CBS) is studied with a string-hadronic transport model (UrQMD) for various energies from Elab=4A GeV to √(s)=200A GeV. It is shown that rescattering among secondaries cannot mimic the predicted correlation pattern expected for a quark-gluon-plasma. However, we find a strong increase of the CBS correlation function with decreasing collision energy for p+p and Au+Au and/or Pb+Pb reactions. For Au+Au reactions at the top BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider energy (√(s)=200A GeV), the CBS correlation is constant for all centralities and compatible with the p+p result. With increasing width of the rapidity window, CBS follows roughly the shape of the baryon rapidity distribution. We suggest studying the energy and centrality dependence of CBS to gain information on the onset of the deconfinement transition in temperature and volume