Skip to main content
eScholarship
Open Access Publications from the University of California

Microscopic study of deuteron production in PbPb collisions at s=2.76TeV via hydrodynamics and a hadronic afterburner

Abstract

The deuteron yield in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV is consistent with thermal production at a freeze out temperature of T=155MeV. The existence of deuterons with binding energy of 2.2 MeV at this temperature was described as "snowballs in hell" [P. Braun-Münzinger, B. Dönigus, and N. Löher, CERN Courier, August 2015]. We provide a microscopic explanation of this phenomenon, utilizing relativistic hydrodynamics and switching to a hadronic afterburner at the above-mentioned temperature of T=155MeV. The measured deuteron pT spectra and coalescence parameter B2(pT) are reproduced without free parameters, only by implementing experimentally known cross sections of deuteron reactions with hadrons, most importantly πd↔πnp.

Main Content
For improved accessibility of PDF content, download the file to your device.
Current View