Signals of non-extensive statistical mechanics in high-energy nuclear collisions

Abstract

Starting from the presence of non-ideal plasma effects due to strongly coupled plasma in the early stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, we investigate, from a phenomenological point of view, the relevance of non-conventional statistical mechanics effects on the rapidity spectra of net proton yield at AGS, SPS and RHIC. We show that the broad rapidity shape measured at RHIC can be very well reproduced in the framework of a non-linear relativistic Fokker-Planck equation which incorporates non-extensive statistics and anomalous diffusion.