skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Multiplicity fluctuations due to the temperature fluctuations in high-energy nuclear collisions

Journal Article · · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics
 [1];  [2]
  1. Andrzej Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Hoza 69, PL-00681, Warsaw (Poland)
  2. Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, SwiePtokrzyska 15, PL-25406 Kielce (Poland)

We investigate the multiplicity fluctuations observed in high-energy nuclear collisions attributing them to intrinsic fluctuations of temperature of the hadronizing system formed in such processes. To account for these fluctuations, we replace the usual Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) statistics by the nonextensive Tsallis statistics characterized by the nonextensivity parameter q, with |q-1| being a direct measure of fluctuation. In the limit of vanishing fluctuations, q{yields}1 and Tsallis statistics converge to the usual BG. We evaluate the nonextensivity parameter q and its dependence on the hadronizing system size from the experimentally observed collision centrality dependence of the mean multiplicity <N> and its variance Var(N). We attribute the observed system size dependence of q to the finiteness of the hadronizing source, with q=1 corresponding to an infinite, thermalized source with a fixed temperature, and with q>1 (which is observed) corresponding to a finite source in which both the temperature and energy fluctuate.

OSTI ID:
21286967
Journal Information:
Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Vol. 79, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.79.054903; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2813
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English