Kinetics vs hydrodynamics: generalization of Landau/Cooper-Frye prescription for freeze-out

Abstract

The problem of spectra formation in hydrodynamic approach to A+A collisions is considered within the Boltzmann equations. It is shown analytically and illustrated by numerical calculations that the particle momentum spectra can be presented in the Cooper-Frye form despite freeze-out is not sharp and has the finite temporal width. The latter is equal to the inverse of the particle collision rate at points $(t_{\sigma}({\bf r},p),{\bf r})$ of the maximal emission at a fixed momentum $p$. The set of these points forms the hypersurfaces $t_\sigma({\bf r},p)$ which strongly depend on the values of $p$ and typically do not enclose completely the initially dense matter. This is an important difference from the standard Cooper-Frye prescription (CFp), with a common freeze-out hypersurface for all $p$, that affects significantly the predicted spectra. Also, the well known problem of CFp as for negative contributions to the spectra from non-space-like parts of the freeze-out hypersurface is naturally eliminated in this improved prescription.