The statistical model in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper reviews thermal model predictions for hadron production in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC, compares them with recent data, and discusses anomalies and the statistical production of J/ψ mesons in the quark-gluon plasma.

Contribution

It provides a comparison of thermal model predictions with LHC data, highlighting an anomaly for protons and anti-protons and supporting statistical J/ψ production in QGP.

Findings

Thermal model predictions align well with J/ψ production data.

An anomaly observed in proton and anti-proton yields.

Support for complete charmonium melting and statistical regeneration at the phase boundary.

Abstract

We briefly review the predictions of the thermal model for hadron production in comparison to latest data from RHIC and extrapolate the calculations to LHC energy. Our main emphasis is to confront the model predictions with the recently released data from ALICE at the LHC. This comparison reveals an apparent anomaly for protons and anti-protons which we discuss briefly. We also demonstrate that our statistical hadronization predictions for J/$\psi$ production agree very well with the most recent LHC data, lending support to the picture in which there is complete charmonium melting in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) followed by statistical generation of J/$\psi$ mesons at the phase boundary.