Centrality dependence of limiting fragmentation

TL;DR

This study examines how the limiting-fragmentation hypothesis holds across different collision centralities and energies in heavy-ion collisions, using a relativistic diffusion model to analyze experimental data from RHIC and LHC.

Contribution

It introduces a phenomenological analysis with a relativistic diffusion model to test the limiting-fragmentation hypothesis across multiple energies and centralities.

Findings

Limiting-fragmentation holds for all centralities studied.

Particle numbers in sources depend logarithmically on energy.

Both linear and nonlinear rapidity drift functions are physically relevant.

Abstract

We investigate the centrality-dependent validity of the limiting-fragmentation hypothesis in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at energies reached at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). A phenomenological analysis of Au-Au and Pb-Pb collisions within a three-source relativistic diffusion model (RDM) is performed at sqrt(s_NN) = 19.6, 62.4, 130, 200, 2760 and 5023 GeV using four centrality cuts at each energy. Linear and nonlinear expressions for the rapidity drift function are tested and their physical relevance is discussed. Our results are compatible with the limiting-fragmentation conjecture for the investigated centralities in the full energy range. The number of particles in the fragmentation and fireball sources are found to depend on sqrt(s_NN) logarithmically and cubic-logarithmically, respectively.