The analysis of pi^{-} mesons produced in nucleus-nucleus collisions at a momentum of 4.5 GeV/c/nucleon in light front variables

TL;DR

This paper applies light front analysis to pi^{-} mesons in various nucleus-nucleus collisions at 4.5 GeV/c/nucleon, extracting temperatures and comparing results with the Quark-Gluon String Model to understand meson production.

Contribution

It introduces a light front analysis method for secondary pions in nucleus collisions and compares thermal model results with QGSM predictions.

Findings

Thermal equilibrium assumption fits data in part of phase space.

Extracted temperatures depend on the geometric mean of projectile and target mass numbers.

QGSM reproduces experimental data well for light and intermediate nuclei.

Abstract

The light front analysis of pi^{-} mesons in He(Li,C), C-Ne, C-Cu and O-Pb collisions is carried out. The phase space of secondary pions is divided into two parts in one of which the thermal equilibrium assumption seems to be in a good agreement with the data. Corresponding temperatures T are extracted and their dependence on (A_{P}*A_{T})^{1/2} is studied. The results are compared with the predictions of the Quark-Gluon String Model (QGSM). The QGSM satisfactorily reproduces the experimental data for light and intermediate-mass nuclei.