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Phys. Rev. C 66, 054901 (2002) [10 pages]

Proton emission in Au+Au collisions at 6, 8, and 10.8 GeV/nucleon

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B. B. Back et al. (E917 Collaboration)
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Received 11 July 2002; published 11 November 2002

Transverse mass spectra of protons emitted in Au+Au collisions at beam energies of 6, 8, and 10.8 GeV/nucleon have been measured as a function of collision centrality over a rapidity range 0.5<ylab<1.5. The spectra are well reproduced by Boltzmann distributions over the measured transverse mass region, which allows for extrapolation of the data to derive the rapidity density and apparent temperature of the emitting source. The shapes of the rapidity distributions suggest significant transparency or substantial longitudinal expansion in even the most central collisions at all three beam energies. The data are analyzed within a simple thermal source plus longitudinal expansion model.


©2002 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevC.66.054901
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.66.054901
PACS: 25.75.-q, 13.85.Ni, 21.65.+f

* Present address: Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan.
† Present address: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973.
‡ Present address: Max Planck Institut für Physik, D-80805, München, Germany.
§ Present address: Kernforschungzentrum Jülich, Jülich, D-52425, Germany.
** Present address: Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, D-64291 Darmstadt, Germany.
†† Present address: University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607.
‡‡ Present address: Laboratori Nationali di Frascati dell’INFN, 00044 Frascati RM, Italy.
Present address: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Colaba, Mumbai 400005, India.
a Present address: Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011.
b Present address: National Institute of Health, Gaithersburg, MD 20892.
c Present address: CW Associates, 7676 Woodbine, Markham L3R 2N2, Ontario.
d Present address: H.-M. Zou, Rabobank Nederland, 245 Park Ave, New York, NY 10167.

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