The Horn and the Thermal Model

Abstract

The recently discovered sharp peak in the K+/pi+ ratio in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is discussed in the framework of the thermal model. In this model a rapid change is expected as the hadronic gas undergoes a transition from a baryon-dominated to a meson-dominated gas. The transition occurs at a temperature T = 140 MeV and baryon chemical potential muB = 410 MeV corresponding to an incident energy of 8.2 GeV.