Strangeness Enhancement in Cu+Cu and Au+Au Collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV

Abstract: We report new STAR measurements of mid-rapidity yields for the $\Lambda$, $\bar{\Lambda}$, $K<sup>{0}_{S}$, $\Xi<sup>{-}$, $\bar{\Xi}<sup>{+}$, $\Omega<sup>{-}$, $\bar{\Omega}<sup>{+}$ particles in Cu+Cu collisions at \sNN{200}, and mid-rapidity yields for the $\Lambda$, $\bar{\Lambda}$, $K<sup>{0}_{S}$ particles in Au+Au at \sNN{200}. We show that at a given number of participating nucleons, the production of strange hadrons is higher in Cu+Cu collisions than in Au+Au collisions at the same center-of-mass energy. We find that aspects of the enhancement factors for all particles can be described by a parameterization based on the fraction of participants that undergo multiple collisions.