Beam energy dependence of identified particle production in heavy-ion collisions using a parton-hadron string dynamics model

TL;DR

This study uses the PHSD transport model to predict particle spectra and ratios in heavy-ion collisions at various energies, emphasizing baryon stopping and strangeness production.

Contribution

It provides new predictions for particle production and ratios across energies, enhancing understanding of high baryon density effects in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Qualitative agreement with experimental data on particle yields and spectra.

Highlighting the roles of baryon stopping and strangeness in particle production.

Insights relevant for ongoing and future heavy-ion collision programs.

Abstract

We report predictions for the transverse momentum ($p_T$) spectra of $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $p$, and $\bar{p}$ in various collision centrality from Au + Au collisions at beam energies ($E_{lab}$) of 6.7, 8, 11, and 25 A~GeV using a parton-hadron string dynamics (PHSD) transport model. We studied the dependence of particle yields ($dN/dy$), mean transverse momenta ($\langle p_T \rangle$), and particle ratios on collision energy and centrality to understand the underlying mechanisms of particle production. A comparison of the PHSD model results with available experimental measurements provides a qualitative description of these observables. Our results highlight the importance of baryon stopping, strangeness production, pair production, and baryon-antibaryon annihilation in the high baryon density region. These findings also provide theoretical insights relevant to the ongoing beam energy scan program at RHIC and the future heavy-ion programs at FAIR and NICA.