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

Journal Article · Fri May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVC.79.054903· OSTI ID:21286967

Wilk, Grzegorz ^[1]; Wlodarczyk, Zbigniew ^[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, Journal Name: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 79; ISSN 0556-2813; ISSN PRVCAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ATOM-ATOM COLLISIONS
BOLTZMANN STATISTICS
FLUCTUATIONS
MULTIPLICITY
SIMULATION