2003/11/30 by P. Braun‐Munzinger, P. Braun-Munzinger, Johanna Stachel +2 · 230 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Chemical physics #Condensed matter physics #Hadron #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Nuclear physics #Particle (ecology) #Particle physics #Phase (matter) #Phase boundary #Phase transition #Physics #QCD matter #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum chromodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Scattering #Strange matter #hep-ph #nucl-ex #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2004.05.081
published in Physics Letters B 596(1-2), 61-69 (Elsevier BV) · final version, some comments added about "statistical hadronization", to appear in Phys. Lett. B
arxiv created 2004/06/09 · openalex publication_date 2004/07/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We argue that hadron multiplicities in central high energy nucleus–nucleus collisions are established very close to the phase boundary between hadronic and quark matter. In the hadronic picture this can be described by multi-particle collisions whose importance is strongly enhanced due to the high particle density in the phase transition region. As a consequence of the rapid fall-off of the multi-particle scattering rates the experimentally determined chemical freeze-out temperature is a good measure of the phase transition temperature.