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Title: Quantum chromodynamics and the statistical hydrodynamical model of hadron production

Journal Article · · Phys. Rev. D; (United States)

We analyze the Fermi-Landau statistical hydrodynamical model of hadron-hadron multiplicities in the framework of QCD, using the Pokorski--Van Hove model wherein the collision of preexisting glue dominates the multiplicity. It is noted that previous dismissal of the possibility of thermalization in the basis of nuclear ''transparency'' is circumvented in this picture because the valence quarks pass through, whereas the gluon clouds interact strongly. Assuming that the gluons equilibrate to a thermalized plasmoid within the Fermi-Landau (FL) Lorentz-contracted initial volume, we derive a simple formula for the multiplicity with the form N/sub ch/roughly-equal2.5 f/sup 1/4/ W/sup 1/2//sub had/ (three flavors excited), where 1-f is the fraction of energy carried away by the leading particles and W/sub had/ = fW is the energy left behind. If f were fixed at a constant value of (1/2), the formula would agree extremely well with data up to and including p-barp collider energies. (The widely held belief that collider multiplicities rule out the Fermi power law was based on the use of W rather than W/sub had/.) However, using the data of Basile et al., in which multiplicities are broken down as a function of W/sub had/ for different W values, we find that the f/sup 1/4/ dependence is ruled out. We conclude that thermalization of the colliding gluon clouds in the FL volume is also ruled out, although thermalization in the gluon fragmentation and central regions remains a possibility.

Research Organization:
Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1662, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
OSTI ID:
5827436
Journal Information:
Phys. Rev. D; (United States), Vol. 28:1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English