Baryon emission at target rapidities inSi+Al,Cu,Aucollisions at14.6AGeV/candAu+Aucollisions at11.7AGeV/c

Abstract

We report measurements of proton emission at target rapidities for minimum bias and central collisions of 14.6AGeV/c {sup 28}Si with Al, Cu, and Au nuclei as well as minimum bias and central collisions of 11.7AGeV/c {sup 197}Au with Au nuclei. Results for deuteron emission are also reported for the Si+Au reaction. The spectra span the laboratory angular range of 50{degree}{le}{theta}{le}130{degree} and kinetic energy range of 40MeV{le}E{sub kin}{le}225MeV. Inverse slopes of proton spectra and proton dN/d{eta} values in the kinetic energy range 50MeV{le}E{sub kin}{le}110MeV are reported. The inverse slopes are 40{endash}80 MeV for the various systems, generally increasing with increasing pseudorapidity. The dN/d{eta} values for A+A collisions within the restricted kinetic energy interval are compared to those for protons from p+Au in the literature. All pseudorapidity distributions have very similar shapes. The experimental results have been compared to the predictions of the nucleon-nucleon collision models ARC and RQMD. The predictions made by these two models for the distribution of protons at target rapidities are very similar to each other. However, there are significant differences between the model predictions and the experimental results in the details of the spectral slopes and the proton yields for different trigger conditions. {copyright} {ital 1997} {italmore » The American Physical Society}« less