We argue that hadron multiplicities in central high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions are established very close to the phase boundary between hadronic and quark matter. In the hadronic picture this can be described by multi-particle collisions whose importance is strongly enhanced due to the high particle density in the phase transition region. As a consequence of the rapid fall-off of the multi-particle scattering rates the experimentally determined chemical freeze-out temperature is a good measure of the phase transition temperature.
We present the status of the chemical freeze-out, determined from fits of hadron yields with the statistical hadronization (thermal) model, with focus on the data at the LHC. A description of the yields of hadrons containing light quarks as well as t
he application of the model for the production of the J/$psi$ meson is presented. The implications for the QCD phase diagram are discussed.
The measured particle ratios in central heavy-ion collisions at RHIC-BNL are investigated within a chemical and thermal equilibrium chiral SU(3) sigma-omega approach. The commonly adopted noninteracting gas calculations yield temperatures close to or
above the critical temperature for the chiral phase transition, but without taking into account any interactions. Contrary, the chiral SU(3) model predicts temperature and density dependent effective hadron masses and effective chemical potentials in the medium and a transition to a chirally restored phase at high temperatures or chemical potentials. Three different parametrizations of the model, which show different types of phase transition behaviour, are investigated. We show that if a chiral phase transition occured in those collisions, freezing of the relative hadron abundances in the symmetric phase is excluded by the data. Therefore, either very rapid chemical equilibration must occur in the broken phase, or the measured hadron ratios are the outcome of the dynamical symmetry breaking. Furthermore, the extracted chemical freeze-out parameters differ considerably from those obtained in simple noninteracting gas calculations. In particular, the three models yield up to 35 MeV lower temperatures than the free gas approximation. The in-medium masses turn out differ up to 150 MeV from their vacuum values.
The relaxation of hot nuclear matter to an equilibrated state in the central zone of heavy-ion collisions at energies from AGS to RHIC is studied within the microscopic UrQMD model. It is found that the system reaches the (quasi)equilibrium stage for
the period of 10-15 fm/$c$. Within this time the matter in the cell expands nearly isentropically with the entropy to baryon ratio $S/A = 150 - 170$. Thermodynamic characteristics of the system at AGS and at SPS energies at the endpoints of this stage are very close to the parameters of chemical and thermal freeze-out extracted from the thermal fit to experimental data. Predictions are made for the full RHIC energy $sqrt{s} = 200$ AGeV. The formation of a resonance-rich state at RHIC energies is discussed.
Based on transport equations we argue that the chiral dynamics in heavy-ion collisions at high collision energies effectively decouples from the thermal physics of the fireball. With full decoupling at LHC energies the chiral condensate relaxes to it
s vacuum expectation value on a much shorter time scale than the typical evolution time of the fluid dynamical fields and their fluctuations. In particular, the net-baryon density remains coupled to the bulk evolution at all collision energies. As the mass scales of the hadrons are controlled by the chiral condensate, it is reasonable to employ vacuum masses in the statistical description of the hadron production at the chemical freeze-out for high collision energies. We predict that at lower collision energies the coupling of the chiral condensate to the thermal medium gradually increases with consequences for the related hadronic masses. A new estimate for the location of the freeze-out curve takes these effects into account.
The space-time structure of the multipion system created in central relativistic heavy-ion collisions is investigated. Using the microscopic transport model UrQMD we determine the freeze-out hypersurface from equation on pion density n(t,r)=n_c. It t
urns out that for proper value of the critical energy density epsilon_c equation epsilon(t,r)=epsilon_c gives the same freeze-out hypersurface. It is shown that for big enough collision energies E_kin > 40A GeV/c (sqrt(s) > 8A GeV/c) the multipion system at a time moment {tau} ceases to be one connected unit but splits up into two separate spatial parts (drops), which move in opposite directions from one another with velocities which approach the speed of light with increase of collision energy. This time {tau} is approximately invariant of the collision energy, and the corresponding tau=const. hypersurface can serve as a benchmark for the freeze-out time or the transition time from the hydrostage in hybrid models. The properties of this hypersurface are discussed.