R. Glasow

Forward and transverse energy distributions in oxygen-induced reactions at 60 A GeV and 200 A GeV

Abstract Results are presented from reactions of 60 A GeV and 200 A GeV 16O projectiles with C, Cu, Ag, and Au nuclei. Energy spectra measured at zero degrees and transverse energy distributions in the pseudorapidity range from 2.4 to 5.5 are shown. The average transverse energy per participant is found to be nearly independent of target mass. Estimates of nuclear stopping and of attained energy densities are made.

Charged-particle distributions in 16O induced nuclear reactions at 60 and 200 A GeV

Abstract Results from 16 O induced nuclear interactions with C, Cu, Ag and Au targets at 60 and 200 A GeV are presented. Multiplicity and pseudorapidity-density distributions of charged particles and their dependence on the target mass number are reported. The increase in the particle density with increasing centrality, characterized by the energy flux at zero degrees, is investigated. Comparisons with the Fritiof model reveal systematic differences.

Centrality Dependence of Neutral Pion Production in 158A GeV

The production of neutral pions in 158AGeV Pb+Pb collisions has been studied in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. Transverse momentum spectra are studied for the range 0.3 GeV/c<mT-m0<4.0 GeV/c. The results for central collisions are compared to various models. The centrality dependence of the neutral pion spectral shape and yield is investigated. An invariance of the spectral shape and a simple scaling of the yield with the number of participating nucleons is observed for centralities with greater than about 30 participating nucleons which is most naturally explained by assuming an equilibrated system.

^{208}

Multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions have been measured for32S+Al, Cu, Ag and Au at 200A GeV. The widths of the pseudorapidity distributions increase from central to peripheral collisions. The main contribution is assumed to come from the increasing fraction of charged particles stemming from the fragmentation of the target for peripheral collisions as compared to central collisions. On the average 170–180 charged particles per unit of pseudorapidity are attained for the most central32S+Au events at the maximum of the distribution. The target dependence of the yield of charged particles for central collisions is investigated. In the target rapidity region the yield is directly proportional to the target mass. The transverse energy per charged particle has been studied as a function of centrality and pseudorapidity. The experimental results are compared to the results from the Monte-Carlo model VENUS 3.11 which includes rescattering among secondaries. A comparison between different centrality triggers is made.

Pb+

The production of direct photons has been investigated in reactions ofp and16O projectiles at 60 and 200A·GeV with C and Au nuclei. Photon and π0 spectra have been measured in the pseudorapidity range 1.5≦η≦2.1 for the transverse momentum region 0.4 GeV/c≦pT≦2.8 GeV/c employing the lead-glass spectrometer SAPHIR. An upper limit of 15% at the 90% confidence level for the direct photon signal relative to the neutral pion production is obtained from the comparison of measured photon spectra with Monte Carlo simulations of the hadronic background based on the reconstructed yield of π0 and η mesons. Consequences for a possible phase transition to a quark-gluon plasma are discussed.

^{208}

Transverse momentum (pT) distributions of inclusive photons and neutral pions at midrapidity are measured with a lead glass calorimeter in 60 and 200 A GeV16O+nucleus and proton+nucleus reactions. The variation of the average transverse momentum is investigated as function of centrality, determined by measurements of the remaining energy of the projectile and the charged particle multiplicity. For small values of the entropy, deduced from the multiplicity density, an increase in average pT is observed levelling off for larger values of entropy. The target-mass and energy dependence of π0 pT distributions are presented.

Pb Collisions

Measurements of slow, singly charged fragments in the target rapidity region have been performed for proton and pion induced reactions with various nuclei at 200 GeV/c. Multiplicity, angular and energy distributions are examined and used to study the effects of rescattering in the nuclear medium. Data are compared to a “geometric cascade model” and to simulations with the VENUS 3.11 and the FRITIOF 1.7 Monte Carlo codes.

MULTIPLICITY AND PSEUDORAPIDITY DISTRIBUTIONS OF CHARGED-PARTICLES FROM S-32 INDUCED HEAVY-ION INTERACTIONS AT 200-A GEV

Abstract Minimum Bias production cross sections of η mesons have been measured in 200 AGeV/cS+Au and S+S collisions at the CERN SPS by reconstructing the η → γγ decay. The measurements have been made over the rapidity range 2.1 ≤ y ≤ 2.9 using the leadglass spectrometer of WA80. Within the statistical and systematical uncertainties the spectral shapes of π0 and η mesons yields are identical when their invariant differential cross section is plotted as a function of the transverse mass. The relative normalization of the η to π0 transverse mass spectra is found to be 0.53±0.07 for S+Au and 0.43±0.15 for S+S reactions. Extrapolation to full phase space leads to an integrated cross section ratio of η to π0 mesons of 0.147±0.017(stat.)±0.015(syst.), and 0.120±0.034(stat.)±0.022(syst.) for S+Au and S+S collisions, respectively.

Upper limit for thermal direct photon production in heavy-ion collisions at 60 and 200A·GeV

Abstract The multiplicity of inclusive photons has been measured on an event-by-event basis for 158· A GeV Pb induced reactions on Ni, Nb, and Pb targets. The systematics of the pseudorapidity densities at midrapidity ( ρ max ) and the width of the pseudorapidity distributions have been studied for varying centralities for these collisions. A power law fit to the photon yield as a function of the number of participating nucleons gives a value of 1.12±0.03 for the exponent. The mean transverse momentum, 〈 p T 〉, of photons determined from the ratio of the measured electromagnetic transverse energy and photon multiplicity, remains almost constant with increasing ρ max . Results are compared with model predictions.

Photon and neutral pion distributions in 60 and 200 A GeV16O+nucleus and proton+nucleus reactions

Abstract For the WA80 fixed-target heavy-ion experiment at the CERN-SPS, a 1278 element lead-glass calorimeter has been constructed to measure photons in the energy range from 0.2 to 20 GeV. We describe the design of the detector, the achieved energy and position resolution, the gain monitoring system and the performance of the high-energy photon trigger. The quality of photon identification and π0 invariant mass reconstruction is discussed.