Scaling properties at freeze-out in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

Identified charged pion, kaon, and proton spectra are used to explore the system size dependence of bulk freeze-out properties in Cu+Cu collisions at [sqrt]sNN=200 and 62.4 GeV. The data are studied with hydrodynamically motivated blast-wave and statistical model frameworks in order to characterize the freeze-out properties of the system. The dependence of freeze-out parameters on beam energy and collision centrality is discussed. Using the existing results from Au + Au and pp collisions, the dependence of freeze-out parameters on the system size is also explored. This multidimensional systematic study furthers our understanding of the QCD phase diagram revealing the importance of the initial geometrical overlap of the colliding ions. The analysis of Cu+Cu collisions expands the system size dependence studies from Au+Au data with detailed measurements in the smaller system. The systematic trends of the bulk freeze-out properties of charged particles is studied with respect to the total charged particle multiplicity at midrapidity, exploring the influence of initial state effects.