Hadron Production in Ultra-relativistic Nuclear Collisions and Finite Baryon-Size Effects

We investigate relative hadron yield production of various like and unlike mass particles in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions by employing a statistical thermal model with finite-sized baryons (antibaryons) to imitate the hard-core repulsive interactions leading to the excluded volume type effect. A strong evidence of strangeness suppression relative to the non-strange ones, mainly pions, particularly at higher energies is also observed. This study also indicates that at chemical freeze-out the particle ratios and strangeness suppression in the system obtained theoretically are sensitive to baryonic (antibaryonic) hard-core radius (\(r_B\)). A comparison with earlier analysis involving the strangeness suppression effect is made where baryons and antibaryons were treated as point-like particles. The available experimental data showing energy dependence of various particle ratios are well described throughout the range of centre-of-mass energy (\(\sqrt{s_{NN}}\)). The value of hard-core radius between 0.76 to 0.79 fm is found to fit the data quite well using \(\chi^{2}\) minimization technique. Two different chemical freeze-out stages are found where the earlier one belongs to baryonic (hyperonic), antibaryonic (antihyperonic) states and the later one to mesonic degrees of freedom.