A test of strangeness quantum number conservation in proton-proton collisions

The study delves into the production of (multi-)strange hadrons in proton-proton collisions at LHC. Novel observables are proposed to distinguish between EPOS4, based on core-corona separation between a thermalised QGP phase and a vacuum phase with global strangeness conservation, and PYTHIA8.3, based on microscopic interactions between Lund strings that conserve strangeness locally. Correlations between a $\phi$ meson and (multi-)strange hadrons are shown to be an excellent discriminator between the two types of models.