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Significance of the fragmentation region in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

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posted on 2024-08-06, 12:39 authored by B. B. Back, M. D. Baker, D. S. Barton, R. R. Betts, M. Ballintijn, A. A. Bickley, R. Bindel, A. Budzanowski, W. Busza, A. S. Carroll, M. P. Decowski, E. M. Garcia, N. K. George, K. H. Gulbrandsen, S. Gushue, C. M. Halliwell, J. Hamblen, G. A. Heintzelman, C. Henderson, D. J. Hofman, R. S. Hollis, R. Holynski, B. Holzman, A. Iordanova, E. Johnson, J. L. Kane, J. M. Katzy, N. Khan, W. Kucewicz, P. A. Kulinich, C. M. Kuo, W. T. Lin, S. L. Manly, D. McLeod, J. Michalowski, A. C. Mignerey, R. Nouicer, A. Olszewski, R. Pak, I. C. Park, H. Pernegger, C. Reed, L. P. Remsberg, M. Reuter, C. Roland, G. Roland, L. Rosenberg, J. Sagerer, P. Sarin, P. Sawicki, W. Skulski, S. G. Steadman, P.A. Steinberg, G. S. F. Stephans, M. Stodulski, A. V. Sukhanov, J.-L. Tang, R. Teng, A. Trzupek, C. Vale, G. J. van Nieuwenhuizen, R. Verdier, B. F. Wadsworth, F. L. H. Wolfs, B. Wosiek, K. Wozniak, A. H. Wuosmaa, B. Wyslouch
We present measurements of the pseudorapidity distribution of primary charged particles produced in Au+Au collisions at three energies, sqrt[sNN]=19.6, 130, and 200 GeV, for a range of collision centralities. The distribution narrows for more central collisions and excess particles are produced at high pseudorapidity in peripheral collisions. For a given centrality, however, the distributions are found to scale with energy according to the 'limiting fragmentation' hypothesis. The universal fragmentation region described by this scaling grows in pseudorapidity with increasing collision energy, extending well away from the beam rapidity and covering more than half of the pseudorapidity range over which particles are produced. This approach to a universal limiting curve appears to be a dominant feature of the pseudorapidity distribution and therefore of the total particle production in these collisions.

Funding

Brookhaven National Laboratory

United States Department of Energy

Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences

Directorate for Geosciences

History

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PDF (Accepted manuscript)

ISSN

0031-9007

Journal title

Physical Review Letters

Volume

91

Issue

5

Pagination

3 pp

Publisher

American Physical Society

Copyright statement

Copyright © 2003 American Physical Society. The accepted manuscript is reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

Language

eng

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