Study of Baryon and Antibaryon Spectra in Lead Lead Interactions at 160 GeV/c per Nucleon

% WA97 \\ \\ Hyperons are expected to be a useful probe for the dynamics of hadronic matter under extreme conditions. In particular the onset of a Quark-Gluon Plasma phase in a heavy ion collision is expected to enhance the hyperon yield with respect to normal hadronic interactions. \\ \\WA97 aims to measure the spectra of strange particles and in particular of hyperons and antihyperons produced in ultrarelativistic lead-lead interactions and to compare them with those from proton initiated reactions. The experiment covers central rapidity down to transverse momenta of a few hundred MeV/c. The experimental setup consists of: an array of multiplicity counters, a silicon based decay detector made of pixels, located in the CERN-OMEGA Spectrometer, an array of pad cathode MWPCs used as lever arm detectors and a zero degree hadron calorimeter. \\ \\