Limiting fragmentation in heavy-ion stopping?

TL;DR

This paper uses a relativistic diffusion model aligned with QCD to study baryon stopping in heavy-ion collisions, revealing a limiting fragmentation-like scaling related to gluon saturation, with predictions awaiting experimental verification.

Contribution

It introduces a nonequilibrium-statistical model that links baryon stopping to geometric scaling in the colour-glass condensate, providing new insights into high-energy collision dynamics.

Findings

Net-proton rapidity distributions show limiting fragmentation-like scaling.

Scaling behavior is connected to gluon saturation in the colour-glass condensate.

Predictions for LHC forward-angle data are made for future testing.

Abstract

Based on a nonequilibrium-statistical relativistic diffusion model that is consistent with quantum chromodynamics (QCD), we investigate baryon stopping in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at SPS, RHIC, and LHC energies. The net-proton rapidity distributions of the individual fragments exhibit a scaling behaviour similar to limiting fragmentation (LF) that is related to geometric scaling in the colour-glass condensate (CGC) and depends upon the gluon saturation scale. Forward-angle net-proton data at energies reached at the LHC are required to verify the prediction.