Strangeness Production as a Diagnostic Tool for Understanding Heavy Ion Reactions

Strangeness production has long been proposed as a diagnostic tool for understanding the dynamics of relativistic heavy ion collisions. In this presentation we review the traditional picture of strangeness enhancement as a signature for quark-gluon plasma formation. We then review, in order, some experimental data on strange particle production in $e^{+}e^{-}$, $pp$, $p\bar{p}$, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. This is not a comprehensive review, but rather an emphasis of a few significant points. Any clear interpretation of strange particle yields measured in heavy ion reactions is impossible without a physical understanding of the production mechanisms in elementary particle collisions.