Thermal description of hadron production in e+e- collisions revisited

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the thermal model of hadron production in e+e- collisions across various energies, finding that current data do not support a purely thermal origin of particle production.

Contribution

It revisits the statistical hadron resonance gas model with exact quantum number conservation and tests its validity against recent experimental data.

Findings

Model fails to accurately describe experimental data.

Challenges the assumption of thermal origin of particle production.

Highlights limitations of the thermal model in e+e- collisions.

Abstract

We present a comprehensive analysis of hadron production in e+e- collisions at different center-of-mass energies in the framework of the statistical model of the hadron resonance gas. The model is formulated in the canonical ensemble with exact conservation of all relevant quantum numbers. The parameters of the underlying model were determined using a fit to the average multiplicities of the latest measurements at $\sqrt{s}$ = 10, 29-35, 91 and 130-200 GeV. The results demonstrate that, within the accuracy of the experiments, none of the data sets is satisfactorily described with this approach, calling into question the notion that particle production in e+e- collisions is thermal in origin.