Time evolution of relativistic d + Au and Au + Au collisions

The evolution of charged-particle production in collisions of heavy ions at relativistic energies is investigated as function of centrality in a nonequilibrium-statistical framework. Precise agreement with recent d + Au and Au + Au data at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV is found in a Relativistic Diffusion Model with three sources for particle production. Only the midrapidity source comes very close to local equilibrium, whereas the analyses of the overall pseudorapidity distributions show that the systems remain far from statistical equilibrium.