Universal Pion Freeze-out in Heavy-Ion Collisions

Abstract

Based on an evaluation of data on pion interferometry and on particle yields at mid-rapidity, we propose a universal condition for thermal freeze-out of pions in heavy-ion collisions. We show that freeze-out occurs when the mean free path of pions lambda_f reaches a value of about 1 fm, which is much smaller than the spatial extent of the system at freeze-out. This critical mean free path is independent of the centrality of the collision and beam energy from AGS to RHIC.

arXiv comment5 pages, 3 figures, revised version resubmitted to PRL

References in corpus (12)

• Centrality dependence of pi^[+/-], K^[+/-], p and p-bar production from sqrt(s_NN)=130 GeV Au + Au collisions at RHIC
• Coalescence and flow in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions
• Pion Interferometry of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=130$ GeV Au+Au Collisions at RHIC
• Bose-Einstein Correlations for Three-Dimensionally Expanding, Cylindrically Symmetric, Finite Systems
• Hadronic Expansion Dynamics in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 GeV per Nucleon
• Baryon Rapidity Loss in Relativistic Au+Au Collisions
• Longitudinal Flow of Protons from 2-8 AGeV Central Au+Au Collisions
• Hadron freeze-out conditions in high energy nuclear collisions
• Scaling of Particle and Transverse Energy Production in 208Pb+208Pb collisions at 158 A GeV
• Extracting Source Parameters from Gaussian Fits to Two-Particle Correlations
• Reconstruction of Hadronization Stage in Pb+Pb Collisions at 158A GeV/c
• Universal pion freeze-out phase-space density

Cited by in corpus (67)

• Hadron production in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at chemical freeze-out
• Femtoscopy in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions: Two Decades of Progress
• Comparison of Chemical Freeze-Out Criteria in Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV
• Pion interferometry in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{{\mathrm{s}}_{{}_{\mathrm{NN}}}}$ = 200 GeV
• Hadron Production in Ultra-relativistic Nuclear Collisions: Quarkyonic Matter and a Triple Point in the Phase Diagram of QCD
• Chemical Freeze-out and the QCD Phase Transition Temperature
• The ALICE experiment: a journey through QCD
• Hydrodynamic Approaches in Relativistic Heavy Ion Reactions
• Enhanced Production of Low-Mass Electron Pairs in 40 AGeV Pb-Au Collisions at the CERN SPS
• e+e--pair production in Pb-Au collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon
• Event-by-event fluctuations of the mean transverse momentum in 40, 80, and 158 A GeV/c Pb-Au collisions
• STAR experiment results from the beam energy scan program at RHIC
• Thermodynamic Properties of Strongly Interacting Matter in a Finite Volume using the Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model
• Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=900$ GeV
• Equilibrium Statistical-Thermal Models in High-Energy Physics
• Description of Hot and Dense Hadron Gas Properties in a New Excluded-Volume model
• Statistical production of antikaon nuclear bound states in heavy ion collisions
• Thermodynamics and fluctuations of conserved charges in Hadron Resonance Gas model in finite volume
• Bose-Einstein correlations of pion pairs in central Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS energies
• Fluctuation of strongly interacting matter in Polyakov Nambu Jona-Lasinio model in finite volume
• Effects of a phase transition on HBT correlations in an integrated Boltzmann+Hydrodynamics approach
• Pion femtoscopy in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV
• Quarkonium production in ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions: suppression vs. enhancement
• Examination of scaling of Hanbury-Brown--Twiss radii with charged particle multiplicity
• New results from CERES
• Phase-space densities and effects of resonance decays in hydrodynamic approach to heavy ion collisions
• Particle production in Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions : A Statistical-Thermal Model Review
• Inhomogeneous freeze-out in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Polyakov--Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model in finite volumes
• The freeze-out mechanism and phase-space density in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Predictions for the LHC heavy ion programme
• HBT search for new states of matter in A+A collisions
• Correlations and Fluctuations
• Azimuthal dependence of pion source radii in Pb+Au collisions at 158 A GeV
• Rapidity distribution of protons from the potential version of UrQMD model and the traditional coalescence afterburner
• Transport model analysis of particle correlations in relativistic heavy ion collisions at femtometer scales
• The SPS Heavy Ion Programme
• Transport model analysis of the transverse momentum and rapidity dependence of pion interferometry at SPS energies
• SPS energy scan results and physics prospects at FAIR
• Pion freeze-out as seen through HBT correlations in heavy ion collisions from FAIR/AGS to RHIC energies
• Is soft physics entropy driven?
• Transition from Baryon- to Meson-Dominated Freeze Out -- Early Decoupling around 30 A GeV?
• Freeze-out volume of hot dense fireball
• Central and Non-central HBT from AGS to RHIC
• Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions: Zone of Reactions and Space-Time Structure of a Fireball
• The effect of flow on Hadronic Spectra in an Excluded-Volume Model
• Centrality and $\sqrt{s_{NN}}Dependenceofthe$dE_{T}/dη$and$dN_{ch}/dη$ in Heavy Ion Collisions at Mid-Rapidity
• Effect of finite volume on thermodynamics of quark-hadron matter
• Proton and pion transverse spectra at RHIC from radial flow and finite size effects
• An explanation of the elliptic flow difference between proton and anti-proton from the UrQMD model with hadron potentials
• Beam energy dependent two-pion interferometry and the freeze-out eccentricity of pions in heavy ion collisions at STAR
• System-size dependence of the pion freeze-out volume as a potential signature for the phase transition to a Quark Gluon Plasma
• HBT: A (mostly) experimental overview
• The universal freeze-out criterion at SPS and RHIC
• Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions and the QCD Matter Phase Diagram
• Hadronic Reaction Zones in Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions
• Finite size effect on the thermodynamics of a hot and magnetized hadron resonance gas
• Limiting Fragmentation in a Thermal Model with Flow
• Study of net-baryon higher moments in PNJL model and their expectation for net-proton using the Subensemble Acceptance Method for the search of QCD critical point
• HBT radii : Comparative studies on collision systems and beam energies
• Identical Meson Interferometry in STAR Experiment
• The Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Freeze-out in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Single-Particle Spectra in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions Within the Thermal Quantum Field Theory
• What Can We Learn from Reaction Zone in Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions?
• Finite size effect on Dissociation and Diffusion of chiral partners in Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model