Balance of baryon number in the quark coalescence model

Abstract The charge and baryon balance functions are studied in the coalescence hadronization mechanism of quark–gluon plasma. Assuming that in the plasma phase the q q ¯ pairs form uncorrelated clusters whose decay is also uncorrelated, one can understand the observed small width of the charge balance function in the Gaussian approximation. The coalescence model predicts even smaller width of the baryon–antibaryon balance function: σ B B ¯ / σ + − = 2 / 3 .