Chemical equilibrium study in nucleus-nucleus collisions at relativistic energies

We present a detailed study of chemical freeze-out in nucleus-nucleus collisions at beam energies of 11.6, 30, 40, 80 and 158A GeV. By analyzing hadronic multiplicities within the statistical hadronization approach, we have studied the strangeness production as a function of centre of mass energy and of the parameters of the source. We have tested and compared different versions of the statistical model, with special emphasis on possible explanations of the observed strangeness hadronic phase space under-saturation. We show that, in this energy range, the use of hadron yields at midrapidity instead of in full phase space artificially enhances strangeness production and could lead to incorrect conclusions as far as the occurrence of full chemical equilibrium is concerned. In addition to the basic model with an extra strange quark non-equilibrium parameter, we have tested three more schemes: a two-component model superimposing hadrons coming out of single nucleon-nucleon interactions to those emerging from large fireballs at equilibrium, a model with local strangeness neutrality and a model with strange and light quark non-equilibrium parameters. The behaviour of the source parameters as a function of colliding system and collision energy is studied. The description of strangeness production entails a non-monotonic energy dependence of strangeness saturation parameter gamma_S with a maximum around 30A GeV. We also present predictions of the production rates of still unmeasured hadrons including the newly discovered Theta^+(1540) pentaquark baryon.Comment: 36 pages, 14 figures. Revised version published in Phys. Rev. C: title changed, one paragraph added in section 2, other typos correcte

Superconducting MoSi nanowires

We have fabricated disordered superconducting nanowires of molybdenium silicide. A molybdenium nanowire is first deposited on top of silicon, and the alloy is formed by rapid thermal annealing. The method allows tuning of the crystal growth to optimise, e.g., the resistivity of the alloy for potential applications in quantum phase slip devices and superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. The wires have effective diameters from 42 to 79 nm, enabling the observation of crossover from conventional superconductivity to regimes affected by thermal and quantum fluctuations. In the smallest diameter wire and at temperatures well below the superconducting critical temperature, we observe residual resistance and negative magnetoresistance, which can be considered as fingerprints of quantum phase slips

Energy and system size dependence of chemical freeze-out in relativistic nuclear collisions

We present a detailed study of chemical freeze-out in p-p, C-C, Si-Si and Pb-Pb collisions at beam momenta of 158A GeV as well as Pb-Pb collisions at beam momenta of 20A, 30A, 40A and 80A GeV. By analyzing hadronic multiplicities within the statistical hadronization model, we have studied the parameters of the source as a function of the number of the participating nucleons and the beam energy. We observe a nice smooth behaviour of temperature, baryon chemical potential and strangeness under-saturation parameter as a function of energy and nucleus size. Interpolating formulas are provided which allow to predict the chemical freeze-out parameters in central collisions at centre-of-mass energies > 4.5 GeV and for any colliding ions. Specific discrepancies between data and model emerge in particle ratios in Pb-Pb collisions at SPS between 20A and 40A GeV of beam energy which cannot be accounted for in the considered model schemes.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures. References added and updated. Table correcte

Chemical equilibrium study at SPS 158A GeV

A detailed study of chemical freeze-out in nucleus-nucleus collisions at beam energy 158A GeV is presented. By analyzing hadronic multiplicities within the statistical hadronization approach, the chemical equilibration of p-p, C-C, Si-Si and Pb-Pb systems is studied as a function of the number of participating nucleons in the system. Additionally, Two Component statistical hadronization model is applied to the data and is found to be able to explain the observed strangeness hadronic phase space under-saturation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures to appear in the proceedings of the ''Strangeness in Quark Matter 2004'' conferenc