Fig2. The peak proper acceleration of the produced medium reaches several hundred MeV at both low and high collision energies. (IMAGE)
Caption
The transverse acceleration always points outward and is strongest at the fireball’s peripheral boundary, where the pressure gradient is steepest and the enthalpy density is lowest—a two-fold amplification dictated by the relativistic Euler equation. This boundary enhancement persists even at early times and low collision energies, and it drives the development of the observed radial flow. In contrast, the longitudinal acceleration depends strongly on collision energy: at low energies, nuclear stopping causes intense early deceleration up to about 500 MeV, whereas at ultra-relativistic energies the fast-passing nuclei drag the midrapidity matter through string tension, producing sharp acceleration pulses before the transverse expansion takes over.
Credit
Xu-Guang Huang
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