Distillation and survival of strange quark matter droplets in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions

  • Recently it has been suggested that rather cold droplets of absolutely stable or metastable strange-quark matter may be distilled in heavy-ion collisions during the phase transition from a baryon-rich quark-gluon plasma (QGP) to hadron matter. Here we present a model describing the hadronization of the QGP through particle emission, which is based solely on thermodynamical arguments. Pions and K+’s and K0’s carry away entropy and antistrangeness from the system, thus facilitating the cooling process and the strangelet formation. Our results are supported by revised more sophisticated rate calculations. Two rather unexpected results are obtained when this model is applied to the investigation of strangelet production. The strangeness separation mechanism and the formation process works well even for higher initial entropies per baryon, tantamount to higher bombarding energies. The surviving strangelets have a rather high strangeness content, fs∼1.2–2 [i.e., Z/A∼(-0.1)–(-0.5)]. Hence droplets of strange-quark matter with a baryon number of ∼10–30 and with a negative charge may be produced. They may serve as a unique signature for the transient formation of a quark-gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions.

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Metadaten
Author:Carsten GreinerGND, Horst StöckerORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-27150
Parent Title (German):Physical review D
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2006/05/30
Year of first Publication:1991
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2006/05/30
Volume:44
Issue:11
Page Number:13
First Page:3517
Last Page:3529
HeBIS-PPN:188723943
Institutes:Physik / Physik
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 53 Physik / 530 Physik
PACS-Classification:10.00.00 THE PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS (for experimental methods and instrumentation for elementary-particle physics, see section 29) / 12.00.00 Specific theories and interaction models; particle systematics / 12.38.-t Quantum chromodynamics; Quarks, gluons, and QCD in nuclear reactions, see 24.85.+p / 12.38.Mh Quark-gluon plasma (see also 25.75.Nq Quark deconfinement, quark-gluon plasma production and phase transitions in relativistic heavy ion collisions; see also 21.65.Qr Quark matter)
10.00.00 THE PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS (for experimental methods and instrumentation for elementary-particle physics, see section 29) / 12.00.00 Specific theories and interaction models; particle systematics / 12.40.-y Other models for strong interactions / 12.40.Ee Statistical models
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht