CLUSTER PRODUCTION WITH COALESCENCE AND BREAKUP

The problem of hadronic cluster production in quark-hadron phase trans ition in heavy-ion collisions is studied by cellular automata. Previou s result on the scaling behavior is extended to include variations in the drift speed. It is also shown that coalescence is more important t han growth in generating scaling. A new set of rules is adopted to fre e the clusters from being rigid. It is found that the scaling exponent is independent of not only the shapes of the clusters, but also the p robability of the breakup of the clusters. The universality of the sca ling behavior is now extended to a wide range of physical properties c haracterizing the geometry and dynamics of the phase transition proces s.