Chemical potential dependence of particle ratios within a unified thermal approach

Abstract

A unified statistical thermal freeze-out model (USTFM) is used to study the chemical potential dependence of identified particle ratios at mid-rapidity in heavy-ion collisions. We successfully reproduce the experimental data ranging from SPS energies to LHC energies, suggesting the statistical nature of the particle production in these collisions and hence the validity of our approach. The behavior of the freeze-out temperature is studied with respect to chemical potential. The freeze-out temperature is found to be universal at the RHIC and LHC and is close to the QCD predicted phase transition temperature, suggesting that the chemical freeze-out occurs soon after the hadronization takes place.