Rapidity distributions of Ca+Ca, Nb+Nb, Ne+Au and Au+Au at bombarding energies from 250 to 2100 MeV/nucleon

Abstract

We present experimental rapidity distributions dNch/dy over a wide range of bombarding energies and projectile and target masses. Target and projectile spectators are observed for peripheral collisions but not for the most central collisions. This behavior is found for all systems and bombarding energies investigated. Although detector inefficiencies tend to distort the experimental distributions, they are on a tolerable level and do not remove sensitivity to theoretical descriptions. PACS: 25.70.Np

Neutral meson production in relativistic heavy ion collisions

“…Participant nucleons cannot escape as rapidly as they enter the collision zone and nuclear matter above normal density is formed, as originally predicted on the basis of early hydrodynamical model calculations [-1]. The high stopping power provided by the nuclear medium has been experimentally established by baryon rapidity distributions ,centered around mid rapidity [2,3] and the observed equipartition of transverse and longitudinal nucleon momenta in head-on relativistic heavy ion collisions [4]. * Dedicated to Prof. Dr. P. Kienle on the occasion of his 60th birthday Another approach to investigate the properties of compressed nuclear matter, pioneered by R. Stock et al [5], is the investigation of particle production (y, rc, q, e § e-, t5, K +, A) in relativistic heavy ion collisions.…”