Thermalization of dense hadronic matter in Au + Au collisions at the energies available at FAIR

Abstract

The conditions of local thermodynamic equilibrium of baryons (non-strange, strange) and mesons (strange) are presented for central Au + Au collisions at FAIR energies using the microscopic transport model UrQMD. The net particle density, longitudinal-to-transverse pressure anisotropy and inverse slope parameters of the energy spectra of non-strange and strange hadrons are calculated inside a cell in the central region within rapidity window $|y|<1.0$ at different time steps after the collision. We observed that the strangeness content is dominated by baryons at all energies, however contribution from mesons become significant at higher energies. The time scale obtained from local pressure (momentum) isotropization and thermalization of energy spectra are nearly equal and found to decrease with increase in laboratory energy. The equilibrium thermodynamic properties of the system are obtained with statistical thermal model. The time evolution of the entropy densities at FAIR energies are found very similar with the ideal hydrodynamic behaviour at top RHIC energy.

Comments: New figures, discussions added. To appear in Physical Review C