Thermal analysis of hadron multiplicities from relativistic quantum molecular dynamics

Some questions arising in the application of the thermal model to hadron pr oduction in heavy ion collisions are studied. We do so by applying the ther mal model of hadron production to particle yields calculated by the microsc opic transport model RQMD (version 2.3). We study the bias of incomplete in formation about the final hadronic state on the extraction of thermal param eters. It is found that the subset of particles measured typically in the e xperiments looks more thermal than the complete set of stable particles. Th e hadrons which show the largest deviations from thermal behavior in RQMD ( version 2.3) are the multistrange baryons and antibaryons. We also looked a t the influence of rapidity cuts on the extraction of thermal parameters an d found that they lead to different thermal parameters and larger disagreem ent between the RQMD yields and the thermal model. [S0556-2813(99)03603-1].