Abstract: (Elsevier)
We describe high energy nuclear collisions by a superposition of isotropically decaying thermal sources (“fireballs”) of freeze-out temperature T = 0.15 GeV. The longitudinal fireball superposition is taken as boost-invariant, in a rapidity range determined by the average energy loss of nucleons in p - p collisions. The transverse fireball motion is assumed to be due to random walk initial state collisions; it is determined by p - A data and then extrapolated to central A - B interactions. We thus obtain parameter-free predictions for the rapidity and transverse momentum spectra of hadrons produced in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The results account fully for the observed broadening of transverse momentum distributions, so that single-particle spectra require neither collective flow nor temperature increase.
  • nucleus nucleus: nuclear reaction
  • lead
  • p nucleus: nuclear reaction
  • tungsten
  • p p: interaction
  • interaction: p p
  • pi: hadroproduction
  • hadroproduction: pi
  • nucleon: hadroproduction
  • hadroproduction: nucleon