Quark liberation and coalescence at CERN SPS

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quark degrees of freedom are liberated prior to hadron formation in high-energy lead-lead collisions at CERN SPS, and clarifies the correct coalescence model for hadronization.

Contribution

It corrects the linear coalescence approach, introduces the ALCOR model, and proves quark liberation before hadronization in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Quark degrees of freedom are liberated before hadron formation.

The ALCOR model accurately predicts strange baryon yields.

Linear coalescence approach violates strangeness conservation.

Abstract

The mischievous linear coalescence approach to hadronization of quark matter is shown to violate strangeness conservation in strong interactions. The simplest correct quark counting is shown to coincide with the non-linear algebraic coalescence rehadronization model, ALCOR. The non-linearity of the ALCOR model is shown to cancel from its simple predictions for the relative yields of (multi-)strange baryons. We prove, model independently, that quark degrees of freedom are liberated before hadron formation in 158 AGeV central Pb + Pb collisions at CERN SPS.