³ H and ³ He nuclei production in a combined thermal and coalescence framework for heavy-ion collisions in the few-GeV energy regime*

Abstract A thermal model describing hadron production in heavy-ion collisions in the few-GeV energy regime is combined with the concept of nucleon coalescence to make predictions for the production of 3 H and 3 He nuclei. A realistic parametrization of the freeze-out conditions is employed, which accurately reproduces the spectra of protons and pions. It also correctly predicts the deuteron yield, which agrees with experimental observations. However, the predicted yields of 3 H and 3 He are lower than the experimental results by approximately a factor of two. The model predictions for the spectra can be compared with future experimental data.