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Statistical hadronization model for heavy-ion collisions in a few GeV energy regime

We show that the transverse-mass and rapidity spectra of protons and pions produced in Au-Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.4 GeV can be well reproduced in a thermodynamic model assuming single freeze-out of particles from a spherically symmetric hypersurface. This scenario corresponds to a physical picture used by Siemens and Rasmussen in the original formulation of the blast-wave model. Our framework modifies and extends this approach by incorporation of a Hubble-like expansion of QCD matter and inclusion of resonance decays. In particular, the Delta(1232) resonance is taken into account, with a width obtained from the virial expansion. Altogether, our results bring evidence for substantial thermalization of the matter produced in heavy-ion collisions in a few GeV energy regime and its nearly spherical expansion.