https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-5177-y
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Ratios of strange hadrons to pions in collisions of large and small nuclei
1
Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany
2
UCT-CERN Research Centre and Department of Physics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
3
Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), Université de Strasbourg, CNRS-IN2P3, 67037, Strasbourg, France
4
Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wrocław, 50204, Wrocław, Poland
5
ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, GSI, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany
6
Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India
* e-mail: jean.cleymans@gmail.com
Received:
9
February
2017
Accepted:
29
August
2017
Published online:
5
September
2017
The dependence of particle production on the size of the colliding nuclei is analyzed in terms of the thermal model using the canonical ensemble. The concept of strangeness correlation in clusters of sub-volume 
is used to account for the suppression of strangeness. A systematic analysis is presented of the predictions of the thermal model for particle production in collisions of small nuclei. The pattern of the maxima of strange-particles-to-pion ratios as a function of beam energy is quite special, as they do not occur at the same beam energy and are sensitive to the system size. In particular, the 
ratio shows a clear maximum even for small systems while the maximum in the 
ratio is less pronounced in small systems.
© The Author(s), 2017
