On the impossibility of temperature extraction from heavy ion induced particle spectra

Abstract

Spectra of various particle species have been calculated with the Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) model for very central collisions of Au+Au. They are compatible with the idea of a fully stopped thermal source which exhibits a transversal expansion besides the thermal distribution of an ideal gas. However, the microscopic analyses of the local flow velocities and temperatures indicate much lower temperatures at densities associated with the freeze-out. The results express the overall impossibility of a model-independent determination of nuclear temperatures from heavy ion spectral data, also at other energies e.g. CERN or for other species (i.e. pions, kaons, hyperons)!