1202.1671 (Stefan Floerchinger et al.)

Chemical freeze-out in heavy ion collisions at large baryon densities    [PDF]

Stefan Floerchinger, Christof Wetterich

We argue that the chemical freeze-out in heavy ion collisions at high baryon
density is not associated to a phase transition or rapid crossover. We employ
the linear nucleon-meson model with parameters fixed by the zero-temperature
properties of nuclear matter close to the liquid-gas quantum phase transition.
For the parameter region of interest this yields a reliable picture of the
thermodynamic and chiral properties at non-zero temperature. The chemical
freeze-out observed in low-energy experiments occurs when baryon densities fall
below a critical value of about 15 percent of nuclear density. This region in
the phase diagram is far away from any phase transition or rapid crossover.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.1671