Soft Hadron Ratios at the LHC

Abstract

High precision soft hadron abundance data produced in relativistic nuclear collisions at LHC at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}\le 5500$ GeV will become available beginning in 2007/8. We explore, within the statistical hadronization model, how these results can help us understand the properties of the deconfined quark--gluon phase at its breakup. We make assumptions about the physical properties of the fireball and obtain particle production predictions. Then, we develop a strategy to measure parameters of interest, such as strangeness occupancy ${\gamma }_s$, chemical potentials ${\mu }_{\mathrm{B}}$ and ${\mu }_{\mathrm{S}}$.

Comments: 12 pages, 8 figures, v2: clarifications added, title simplified; accepted for publication in the European Journal of Physics C