Color-singlet clustering of partons and recombination model for hadronization of quark-gluon plasma

Abstract

SU$({N}_{c})$ color-singlet restriction, along with flavor and spin symmetry, on a thermal partonic ensemble is shown to recombine the partons with internal color structure into color-singlet multiquark clusters, which can be identified with various hadronic modes at a given temperature. This can provide a possible basis for a recombination model for hadronization of quark-gluon plasma. This also leads to a natural explanation for the ratio of (anti)protons to pions and the quark number scaling of the elliptic flow coefficient in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.