The excluded volume hadron gas model and pion production at the SPS

Experimental data for nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN SPS suggest that an ideal hadron gas model is unable to account simultaneously (same baryonic chemical potential and temperature at freeze-out) for the strange anti-baryon to baryon ratios and pion abundances. Using a thermodynamically consistent excluded volume model we examine possibilities to account for the observed excess of pions.