Re-Hardening of Hadron Transverse Mass Spectra in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions
arXiv:nucl-th/0102051 · doi:10.1007/BF02704779
Abstract
We analyze the spectra of pions and protons in heavy-ion collisions at relativistic energies from 2 A GeV to 65+65 A GeV by using a jet-implemented hadron-string cascade model. In this energy region, hadron transverse mass spectra first show softening until SPS energies, and re-hardening may emerge at RHIC energies. Since hadronic matter is expected to show only softening at higher energy densities, this re-hardening of spectra can be interpreted as a good signature of the quark-gluon plasma formation.
10 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, Poster presentation at QM2001, Revised to correct latex error in citation on April 6, 2001