What we have learned so far from 3-fluid hydrodynamics

Abstract

Available data on heavy-ion collisions at AGS and SPS energies are analyzed using a 3-fluid dynamical model within a purely hadronic scenario. We investigate the problems met in reproducing these data within this scheme. In particular, we try to indicate those data which could point towards the occurrence of a phase transition into the quark-gluon phase. We also discuss the success of the model in reproducing the transverse-mass spectra of various hadrons. We argue that the simultaneous reproduction of the inverse-slope parameters of all considered particles may imply that these particles belong to the same hydrodynamic flow at the instant of their freeze-out rather than that it signals the onset of a phase transition.