Fluctuations of rare particles as a measure of chemical equilibration Original Research Article

We calculate the time evolution of fluctuations for rare particles such as, e.g., kaons in View the MathML source or charmed particles in 200 AGeV heavy-ion collisions. We find that these fluctuations are a very sensitive probe of the degree of chemical equilibration reached in these collisions. Furthermore, measuring the second factorial moment the size of the initial population can be determined.