Cluster formation near midrapidity -- can the mechanism be identified experimentally?

Abstract

The formation of weakly bound clusters in the hot and dense environment at midrapidity is one of the surprising phenomena observed experimentally in heavy-ion collisions from a low center of mass energy of a few GeV up to a ultra-relativistic energy of several TeV. Three approaches have been advanced to describe the cluster formation: coalescence at kinetic freeze-out, cluster formation during the entire heavy-ion collision by potential interaction between nucleons and deuteron production by hadronic reactions. We identify experimental observables, which can discriminate these production mechanisms for deuterons.

arXiv commenttypos corrected, updated plots

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Flow and Equation of State of nuclear matter at ${\mathbf{E}}_{\mathrm{kin}}$/A=0.25-1.5 GeV with the SMASH transport approach
• Cluster production and the chemical freeze-out in expanding hot dense matter
• Probing of EoS with clusters and hypernuclei
• The time evolution of light nuclei cumulants and ratios with a first-order phase transition in the UrQMD transport model