We analyze the experimental hadron yield ratios for central nucleus-nucleus collisions in terms of thermal model calculations over a broad energy range, √ s N N =2.7-200 GeV. The fits of the experimental data with the model calculations provide the thermal parameters, temperature and baryo-chemical potential at chemical freezeout. We compare our results with the values obtained in other studies and also investigate more technical aspects such as a potential bias in the fits when fitting particle ratios or yields. Using parametrizations of the temperature and baryonic chemical potential as a function of energy, we compare the model calculations with data for a large variety of hadron yield ratios. We provide quantitative predictions for experiments at LHC energy, as well as for the low RHIC energy of 62.4 GeV. The relation of the determined parameters with the QCD phase boundary is discussed.

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Recent studies based on lattice Monte Carlo simulations of quantum chromodynamics (QCD)-the theory of strong interactions-have demonstrated that at high temperature there is a phase change from confined hadronic matter to a deconfined quark-gluon plasma in which quarks and gluons can travel distances that greatly exceed the size of hadrons. Here we show that the phase structure of such strongly interacting matter can be decoded by analysing particle production in high-energy nuclear collisions within the framework of statistical hadronization, which accounts for the thermal distribution of particle species. Our results represent a phenomenological determination of the location of the phase boundary of strongly interacting matter, and imply quark-hadron duality at this boundary.