Abstract
Within the statistical model, the net strangeness conservation and incomplete total strangeness equilibration lead to the suppression of strange particle multiplicities. Furthermore, suppression effects appear to be stronger in small systems. By treating the production of strangeness within the canonical ensemble formulation we developed a simple model which allows to predict the excitation function of K+/π+ ratio in nucleus–nucleus collisions. In doing so we assumed that different values of K+/π+, measured in p + p and Pb + Pb interactions at the same collision energy per nucleon, are driven by the finite size effects only. These predictions may serve as a baseline for experimental results from NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS and the future CBM experiment at FAIR.
Highlights
The multiplicity of pions per participating nucleon is known to be similar in nucleus-nucleus (A+A) and in inelastic proton-proton (p+p) interactions at the same collision energy per nucleon
This is in line with the Wounded Nucleon Model [1] (WNM) in which the final states in A+A collisions are treated as a superposition of independent nucleon-nucleon collisions
Similar picture emerges from the hadron statistical models within the grand canonical ensemble (GCE) formulation
Summary
The multiplicity of pions per participating nucleon is known to be similar in nucleus-nucleus (A+A) and in inelastic proton-proton (p+p) interactions at the same collision energy per nucleon. Conservation of strangeness in large statistical systems can be treated within the GCE formulation, in which all hadron multiplicities are proportional to the system volume V. A comparison of the statistical model results with hadron multiplicity data, within both CE and GCE, evidences an incomplete strangeness equilibration. The finite-size strangeness suppression is calculated in terms of two model parameters which are extracted from existing data on p+p and Pb+Pb collisions. This opens a possibility to make the model predictions for the K+/π+ ratio in A+A collisions with light and intermediate ions.
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