Stabilizing Hadron Resonance Gas Models against Future Discoveries

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stability of hadron resonance gas models by incorporating undiscovered resonances, finding their predictions remain robust despite uncertainties, but applicability may be limited below the QCD crossover temperature.

Contribution

It extends hadron resonance gas models with the Hagedorn formula to account for unknown resonances and assesses their impact on thermodynamics and heavy-ion collision observables.

Findings

Unknown resonances significantly affect thermodynamics but within bounds.

Hadron resonance gases are consistent up to temperatures above the QCD crossover.

Heavy-ion collision observables are insensitive to the exponential growth in hadronic states.

Abstract

We examine the stability of hadron resonance gas models by extending them to take care of undiscovered resonances through the Hagedorn formula. We find that the influence of unknown resonances on thermodynamics is large but bounded. Hadron resonance gases are internally consistent up to a temperature higher than the cross over temperature in QCD; but by examining quark number susceptibilities we find that their region of applicability seems to end even below the QCD cross over. We model the decays of resonances and investigate the ratios of particle yields in heavy-ion collisions. We find that observables such as hydrodynamics and hadron yield ratios change little upon extending the model. As a result, heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC are insensitive to a possible exponential rise in the hadronic density of states, thus increasing the stability of the predictions of hadron resonance gas models.