Evidence for a high entropy phase in nuclear collisions

We determine the entropy per baryon content of the central reaction region in terms of the charged particle multiplicity. We study the consistency of our findings with recent data on strange anti-baryon production at 200 GeV A in S → A collisions (A ∼ 200) assuming formation of a central fireball. Hadron gas models which do not invoke strong medium modifications of hadron masses do not provide enough entropy and are inconsistent with the combined experimental results. In contrast the quark-gluon plasma hypothesis explains them naturally.