Nucleon clustering at kinetic freezeout of heavy-ion collisions via path-integral Monte Carlo

Abstract

Clustering of the four-nucleon system at kinetic freezeout conditions is studied using path-integral Monte Carlo techniques. This method seeks to improve upon previous calculations which relied on approximate semiclassical methods or few-body quantum mechanics. Estimates are given for the decay probabilities of the 4N system into various light nuclei decay channels and the strength of spatial correlations is characterized. Additionally, a simple model is presented to describe the impact of this clustering on nucleon multiplicity distributions. The effects of a possible modification of the inter-nucleon interaction due to the close critical line (and hypothetical QCD critical point) on the clustering are also studied.

Comments: 24 pages, 11 figures, 6 tables; version 3 of this paper; significantly reduced extraneous explanations and technical details and addressed some points raised by others; submitted to Nucl. Phys. A