Explaining Snowball-in-Hell Phenomena in Heavy-Ion Collisions Using a Novel Thermodynamic Variable

Braaten, Eric [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)]; Ingles, Kevin [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States); University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000253690493); Pickett, Justin [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)] (ORCID:0009000353394090)

doi:10.1103/7cjr-fgdw

DOE OSTI · 3010018

Explaining Snowball-in-Hell Phenomena in Heavy-Ion Collisions Using a Novel Thermodynamic Variable

Braaten, Eric [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)]·Ingles, Kevin [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States); University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000253690493)·Pickett, Justin [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)] (ORCID:0009000353394090)

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Abstract

A loosely bound hadronic molecule produced by a relativistic heavy-ion collision has been described as a “snowball in hell” since it emerges from a hadron resonance gas whose temperature is orders of magnitude larger than the binding energy of the molecule. This remarkable phenomenon can be explained in terms of a novel thermodynamic variable called the “contact” that is conjugate to the binding momentum of the molecule. The production rate of the molecule can be expressed in terms of the contact density at the kinetic freeze-out of the hadron resonance gas. It approaches a nonzero limit as the binding energy goes to 0.

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Braaten, Eric [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)], Ingles, Kevin [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States); University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000253690493), Pickett, Justin [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)] (ORCID:0009000353394090). 2025-06-26. Explaining Snowball-in-Hell Phenomena in Heavy-Ion Collisions Using a Novel Thermodynamic Variable. https://doi.org/10.1103/7cjr-fgdw

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