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.
We present an analysis of particle production yields measured in central Au-Au collisions at RHIC in the framework of the statistical thermal model. We demonstrate that the model extrapolated from previous analyses at SPS and AGS energy is in good agreement with the available experimental data at √ s = 130 GeV implying a high degree of chemical equilibration. Performing a χ 2 fit to the data, the range of thermal parameters at chemical freezeout is determined. At present, the best agreement of the model and the data is obtained with the baryon chemical potential µ B ≃ 46 ± 5 MeV and temperature T ≃ 174 ± 7 MeV. More ratios, such as multistrange baryon to meson, would be required to further constrain the chemical freezeout conditions. Extrapolating thermal parameters to higher energy, the predictions of the model for particle production in Au-Au reactions at √ s = 200GeV are also given.
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.
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