Abstract: Hadron production in heavy-ion collisions.
We have studied hadron production in heavy-ion collisions within the statistical hadronization model. Special emphasis is
put on recent new data from RHIC Au-Au collisions at center-of-mass energies of 130 and 200
GeV per participating nucleon. We have studied the centrality (system size) dependence of the statistical hadronization
model characteristic parameters and found out that limiting conditions have been reached at RHIC. The new
results from RHIC combined with our previous analyses at SPS and AGS energies provide a comprehensive
review of hadron production in heavy-ion collisions as a function of the beam energy as well
as of the system size. A review with comparison between previous similar analyses is provided.