Explaining Snowball-in-hell Phenomena in Heavy-ion Collisions Using a Novel Thermodynamic Variable

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new thermodynamic variable called the 'contact' to explain how loosely bound hadronic molecules can form in high-temperature heavy-ion collisions, challenging traditional expectations.

Contribution

It proposes the 'contact' as a novel thermodynamic quantity that accounts for the formation of fragile molecules in hot hadron gases, providing a new theoretical framework.

Findings

The contact density remains finite as binding energy approaches zero.

Production rate correlates with contact density at kinetic freezeout.

Explains the 'snowball in hell' phenomenon in heavy-ion collisions.

Abstract

A loosely bound hadronic molecule produced by a relativistic heavy-ion collision has been described as a ``snowball in hell'' since it emerges from a hadron resonance gas whose temperature is orders of magnitude larger than the binding energy of the molecule. This remarkable phenomenon can be explained in terms of a novel thermodynamic variable called the ``contact'' that is conjugate to the binding momentum of the molecule. The production rate of the molecule can be expressed in terms of the contact density at the kinetic freezeout of the hadron resonance gas. It approaches a nonzero limit as the binding energy goes to 0.