Alternative Scenarios of Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions: III. Transverse Momentum Spectra

Understand

Transverse-mass spectra, their inverse slopes and mean transverse masses in relativistic collisions of heavy nuclei are analyzed in a wide range of incident energies 2.7 GeV $\le \sqrt{s_{NN}}\le$ 39 GeV.

• The analysis is performed within the three-fluid model employing three different equations of state (EoS's): a purely hadronic EoS, an EoS with the first-order phase transition and that with a smooth crossover transition into deconfined state.
• Calculations show that inverse slopes and mean transverse masses of all the species (with the exception of antibaryons within the hadronic scenario) exhibit a step-like behavior similar to that observed for mesons and protons in available experimental data.
• This step-like behavior takes place for all considered EoS's and results from the freeze-out dynamics rather than is a signal of the deconfinement transition.