Hadron Freeze-Out and Unruh Radiation

Abstract

We consider hadron production in high energy collisions as an Unruh radiation phenomenon. This mechanism describes the production pattern of newly formed hadrons and is directly applicable at vanishing baryochemical potential, mu = 0. It had already been found to correctly yield the hadronisation temperature, T_h = sqrt(sigma / 2 pi) = 165 MeV in terms of the string tension sigma. Here we show that the Unruh mechanism also predicts hadronic freeze-out conditions, giving s/T_h^3 = 3 pi^2 / 4 = 7.4 in terms of the entropy density s and E/N = \sqrt(2 pi sigma) = 1.09 for the average energy per hadron. These predictions provide a theoretical basis for previous phenomenological results and are also in accord with recent lattice studies.