https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2016-16238-3
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Baryon stopping probes deconfinement
Institut für Theoretische Physik der Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 16, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany
* e-mail: wolschin@uni-hd.de
Received:
27
July
2015
Accepted:
3
September
2015
Published online:
22
August
2016
Stopping and baryon transport in central relativistic Pb + Pb and Au + Au collisions are reconsidered with the aim to find indications for the transition from hadronic to partonic processes. At energies reached at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron ( 
6.3-17.3 GeV) and at RHIC (62.4 GeV) the fragmentation-peak positions as obtained from the data depend linearly on the beam rapidity and are in agreement with earlier results from a QCD-based approach that accounts for gluon saturation. No discontinuities in the net-proton fragmentation peak positions occur in the expected transition region from partons to hadrons at 6-10GeV. In contrast, the mean rapidity loss is predicted to depend linearly on the beam rapidity only at high energies beyond the RHIC scale. The combination of both results offers a clue for the transition from hard partonic to soft hadronic processes in baryon stopping. NICA results could corroborate these findings.
© SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2016
