Energy and centrality dependence of chemical freeze-out parameters from models

TL;DR

This paper systematically investigates how chemical freeze-out parameters in heavy-ion collisions depend on collision energy, centrality, and model assumptions, using the thermal model THERMUS and AMPT simulations to evaluate their sensitivity.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the dependence of freeze-out parameters on model assumptions and collision conditions, aiding interpretation of experimental data.

Findings

Freeze-out parameters vary with collision energy and centrality.

Model assumptions significantly influence extracted parameters.

Comparison between ensembles reveals differences in freeze-out conditions.

Abstract

One of the main goals of heavy-ion collision experiments is to study the structure of the QCD phase diagram. The QCD phase diagram is typically plotted as temperature ($T$) vs. baryon chemical potential ($\mu_{B}$). The statistical thermal model THERMUS compared to experimental data provides chemical freeze-out parameters such as temperature, baryon chemical potential and strangeness saturation factor ($\gamma_{s}$). However, the values of these parameters depend on models and their underlying assumptions, such as the nature of the ensemble used, particle ratios vs. particle yields, and the treatment of feed-down contributions to particle yields. In these proceedings, we report on a systematic study of chemical freeze-out parameters using THERMUS, as a function of collision centrality and collision energies ($\sqrt{s_{NN}} =7.7-200$ GeV). These studies are performed with the string melting version of A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model. A comparison is presented of freeze-out parameters between grand-canonical vs. strangeness canonical ensembles, particle yields vs. ratios, with and without feed-down contributions to the particle yields. The main aim is to evaluate the sensitivity of the thermal model fits to various model assumptions. This is an important study for understanding corresponding experimental results from the beam energy scan program at RHIC.