Tsallis Statistics in High Energy Physics: Chemical and Thermal Freeze-Outs

Abstract

We present an overview of a proposal in relativistic proton-proton (pp) collisions emphasizing the thermal or kinetic freeze-out stage in the framework of the Tsallis distribution. In this paper we take into account the chemical potential present in the Tsallis distribution by following a two step procedure. In the first step we used the redudancy present in the variables such as the system temperature, T, volume, V, Tsallis exponent, q, chemical potential, μ, and performed all fits by effectively setting to zero the chemical potential. In the second step the value q is kept fixed at the value determined in the first step. This way the complete set of variables T,q,V and μ can be determined. The final results show a weak energy dependence in pp collisions at the centre-of-mass energy s=20 TeV to 13 TeV. The chemical potential μ at kinetic freeze-out shows an increase with beam energy. This simplifies the description of the thermal freeze-out stage in pp collisions as the values of T and of the freeze-out radius R remain constant to a good approximation over a wide range of beam energies.

Keywords

• statistical mechanics
• thermal model
• high energy physics