Particle Production In Au Au Collisions From Bnl E866 PDF Download

In this article we summarize recent results on the study of Au+Au collisions at 10.8A GeV/c obtained at the AGS by the E877 Collaboration. New results on the directed sideward flow are presented. In particular, the dependence of proton and pion production on the direction of the reaction plane will be discussed. It is shown that the sideward flow is mainly due to nucleons and that pions show little flow effects. Two-pion correlation functions are studied to derive the density at freeze-out. Further, we inspect the correlations as a function of the pion direction relative to the reaction plane. A dependence of the deduced source sizes on the pair direction and momentum is observed. The measured source sizes are compared to results obtained in lighter systems. Measured m[sub t] spectra of pions and kaons are also presented. The pion spectra show an enhancement at low m[sub t] similar to that observed in Si+Pb and which was attributed to[triangle] resonance excitation. However, in contrast to Si+Pb now a clear difference between the[pi][sup+] and[pi][sup -] spectra is seen. The K[sup+] spectra, which showed a very steep component over a small p[sub t] range in the previously studied Si+Pb reaction exhibit for Au+Au an unexpected structure at very low p[sub t].