Constraining the equation of state with identified particle spectra

Abstract

We show that in a central nucleus-nucleus collision, the variation of the mean transverse mass with the multiplicity is determined, up to a rescaling, by the variation of the energy over entropy ratio as a function of the entropy density, thus providing a direct link between experimental data and the equation of state. Each colliding energy thus probes the equation of state at an effective entropy density, whose approximate value is $19$ fm${}^{-3}$ for Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV and $41$ fm${}^{-3}$ for Pb+Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV, corresponding to temperatures of $227$ MeV and $279$ MeV if the equation of state is taken from lattice calculations. The relative change of the mean transverse mass as a function of the colliding energy gives a direct measure of the pressure over energy density ratio $P/\epsilon$, at the corresponding effective density. Using RHIC and LHC data, we obtain $P/\epsilon =0.21\pm 0.10$, in agreement with the lattice value $P/\epsilon =0.23$ in the corresponding temperature range. Measurements over a wide range of colliding energies using a single detector with good particle identification would help reducing the error.

12 pages, 8 figures; minor revision

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• QCD Equation of State at Finite Chemical Potentials for Relativistic Nuclear Collisions
• Analytical insights into the interplay of momentum, multiplicity and the speed of sound in heavy-ion collisions
• Jet Quenching in The Most Vortical Fluid: A Holographic Approach
• Hydrodynamic model of heavy-ion collisions with low momentum components