Evidence of Early Multistrange Hadron Freeze-Out in High Energy Nuclear Collisions

Recently reported transverse momentum distributions of strange hadrons produced in $\mathrm{Pb}\left(158A\mathrm{GeV}\right)$ on Pb collisions and corresponding results from the relativistic quantum molecular dynamics approach are examined. We argue that the experimental observations favor a scenario in which multi-strange hadrons are formed and decouple from the system rather early at large energy densities (at about $1\mathrm{GeV}/{\mathrm{fm}}^3$). The systematics of the strange and nonstrange particle spectra indicate that the observed transverse flow develops mainly in the late hadronic stages of these reactions.