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The pion multiplicity per participating nucleon in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at the energies 2-15 A GeV is significantly smaller than in nucleon-nucleon interactions at the same collision energy. This effect of pion suppression is argued to appear due to the evolution of the system produced at the early stage of heavy-ion collisions towards a local thermodynamic equilibrium and further isentropic expansion.
Rapidity distributions of net hyperons (Λ−Λ¯¯¯¯) are compared to distributions of participant protons (p−p¯¯¯). Strangeness production (mean multiplicities of produced Λ/Σ0 hyperons and ⟨K+K¯¯¯¯¯⟩) in central nucleus-nucleus collisions is shown for different collision systems at different energies. An enhanced production of Λ¯¯¯¯ compared to p¯¯¯ is observed at 200 GeV per nucleon.
Pion and strangeness puzzles
(1996)
Data on the mean multiplicity of strange hadrons produced in minimum bias proton--proton and central nucleus--nucleus collisions at momenta between 2.8 and 400 GeV/c per nucleon have been compiled. The multiplicities for nucleon--nucleon interactions were constructed. The ratios of strange particle multiplicity to participant nucleon as well as to pion multiplicity are larger for central nucleus--nucleus collisions than for nucleon--nucleon interactions at all studied energies. The data at AGS energies suggest that the latter ratio saturates with increasing masses of the colliding nuclei. The strangeness to pion multiplicity ratio observed in nucleon--nucleon interactions increases with collision energy in the whole energy range studied. A qualitatively different behaviour is observed for central nucleus--nucleus collisions: the ratio rapidly increases when going from Dubna to AGS energies and changes little between AGS and SPS energies. This change in the behaviour can be related to the increase in the entropy production observed in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at the same energy range. The results are interpreted within a statistical approach. They are consistent with the hypothesis that the Quark Gluon Plasma is created at SPS energies, the critical collision energy being between AGS and SPS energies.
The data on average hadron multiplicities in central A+A collisions measured at CERN SPS are analysed with the ideal hadron gas model. It is shown that the full chemical equilibrium version of the model fails to describe the experimental results. The agreement of the data with the off-equilibrium version allowing for partial strangeness saturation is significantly better. The freeze-out temperature of about 180 MeV seems to be independent of the system size (from S+S to Pb+Pb) and in agreement with that extracted in e+e-, pp and p{\bar p} collisions. The strangeness suppression is discussed at both hadron and valence quark level. It is found that the hadronic strangeness saturation factor gamma_S increases from about 0.45 for pp interactions to about 0.7 for central A+A collisions with no significant change from S+S to Pb+Pb collisions. The quark strangeness suppression factor lambda_S is found to be about 0.2 for elementary collisions and about 0.4 for heavy ion collisions independently of collision energy and type of colliding system
The transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of net protons and negatively charged hadrons have been measured for minimum bias proton-nucleus and deuteron-gold interactions, as well as central oxygen-gold and sulphur-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon. The rapidity density of net protons at midrapidity in central nucleus-nucleus collisions increases both with target mass for sulphur projectiles and with the projectile mass for a gold target. The shape of the rapidity distributions of net protons forward of midrapidity for d+Au and central S+Au collisions is similar. The average rapidity loss is larger than 2 units of rapidity for reactions with the gold target. The transverse momentum spectra of net protons for all reactions can be described by a thermal distribution with temperatures' between 145 +- 11 MeV (p+S interactions) and 244 +- 43 MeV (central S+Au collisions). The multiplicity of negatively charged hadrons increases with the mass of the colliding system. The shape of the transverse momentum spectra of negatively charged hadrons changes from minimum bias p+p and p+S interactions to p+Au and central nucleus-nucleus collisions. The mean transverse momentum is almost constant in the vicinity of midrapidity and shows little variation with the target and projectile masses. The average number of produced negatively charged hadrons per participant baryon increases slightly from p+p, p+A to central S+S,Ag collisions.
A statistical model of the early stage of central nucleus--nucleus (A+A) collisions is developed. We suggest a description of the confined state with several free parameters fitted to a compilation of A+A data at the AGS. For the deconfined state a simple Bag model equation of state is assumed. The model leads to the conclusion that a Quark Gluon Plasma is created in central nucleus--nucleus collisions at the SPS. This result is in quantitative agreement with existing SPS data on pion and strangeness production and gives a natural explanation for their scaling behaviour. The localization and the properties of the transition region are discussed. It is shown that the deconfinement transition can be detected by observation of the characteristic energy dependence of pion and strangeness multiplicities, and by an increase of the event--by--event fluctuations. An attempt to understand the data on J/psi production in Pb+Pb collisions at the SPS within the same approach is presented.