Chemical Freeze-out and the QCD Phase Transition Temperature
arXiv:nucl-th/0311005 · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2004.05.081
Abstract
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.
final version, some comments added about "statistical hadronization", to appear in Phys. Lett. B