2025/02/17 by Sameer Ahmad Mir, Nasir Ahmad Rather, Iqbal Mohi Ud Din +1
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions
paper · doi:10.1088/1361-6471/adb6c2
openalex publication_date 2025/02/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract We investigate the relative yields of various like and unlike mass hadrons in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions (URHIC). In the framework of thermal model, a strong evidence of strangeness imbalance is observed in the experiments at lower collision energies relative to non-strange particles, particularly pions. The study indicates that like mass particle ratios in the system at the chemical freeze-out in URHIC can be described effectively by considering baryons (antibaryons) as point like as well as finite size particles which imitates hard-core repulsive interactions leading to an excluded volume type effect. In this analysis, we employ the statistical hadron resonance gas model for both cases. A comparison between the two cases is provided. However, the importance of considering baryons (antibaryons) as finite size particles is revealed in the description of baryon to meson ratios. Best fits to particle ratios are obtained using χ 2 -minimization procedure. For the case of finite-size baryons (antibaryons), we find that considering their hard-core radii allows us to fit the available antibaryon-to-baryon and baryon (antibaryon)-to-pion ratio experimental data simultaneously quite well with the same model parameter values. Moreover, our results align well with the proton radius puzzle observed in the muonic hydrogen measurement data. Furthermore, the study reveals two distinct chemical freeze-out stages in both cases, where the earlier one corresponds to baryonic (hyperonic) and antibaryonic (antihyperonic) states and a later one to mesonic degrees of freedom. A comparison of freeze-out lines obtained from both the cases is made along with the results of some earlier studies.