Resolving the antibaryon-production puzzle in high-energy heavy-ion collisions.
We argue that the observed antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions at CERN-SPS energies can be understood if (contrary to most sequential scattering approaches) the backward direction in the process pP<-->n(pi) (with n = 5-6) is consistently accounted for within a thermal framework. Employing the standard picture of subsequent chemical and thermal freezeout, which induces an oversaturation of pion number with associated chemical potentials of mu(pi) approximately 60-80 MeV, enhances the backward reaction substantially. The resulting rates turn out to be large enough to maintain an antiproton abundance at thermal freezeout in accordance with the measured p/p ratio in Pb(158A GeV)+Pb collisions.
Rapp
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Department of Physics and Astronomy, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3800.
Shuryak
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