Genuine three-body Bose–Einstein correlations and percolation of strings

Recent data show a large difference of the genuine three-body Bose–Einstein correlations in S–Pb collisions and in Pb–Pb central collisions being close to zero in the first case and to one in the second one. These results, unexpected from conventional approaches, are naturally explained by the percolation of colour strings produced in the collisions and subsequent incoherent fragmentation of the formed clusters.