Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 022301 (2003) [4 pages]Universal Pion Freeze-Out in Heavy-Ion CollisionsReceived 17 July 2002; published 15 January 2003 Based on an evaluation of data on pion interferometry and on particle yields at midrapidity, we propose a universal condition for thermal freeze-out of pions in heavy-ion collisions. We show that freeze-out occurs when the mean free path of pions λf reaches a value of about 1 fm, which is much smaller than the spatial extent of the system at freeze-out. This critical mean free path is independent of the centrality of the collision and beam energy from the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron to the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. © 2003 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.022301
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.022301
PACS:
25.75.Gz
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