Thermalization at lowest energies? A view from a transport model

TL;DR

This paper investigates the production of pions and kaons in heavy-ion collisions at 1-2 AGeV using the IQMD transport model to understand the success of thermal models in describing such systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates the robustness of certain particle yield ratios against variations in elementary cross sections within a transport model.

Findings

Certain particle ratios are insensitive to cross section variations.

Transport model results support thermal model assumptions.

Analysis provides insight into low-energy thermalization processes.

Abstract

Using the Isospin Quantum Molecular Dynamics (IQMD) model we analyzed the production of pions and kaons in the energy range of 1-2 AGeV in order to study the question why thermal models could achieve a successful description. For this purpose we study the variation of pion and kaon yields using different elementary cross sections. We show that several ratios appear to be rather robust versus their variations.