The abundances of light nuclei probe the later stages of the evolution of a system formed in a relativistic heavy-ion collision. After the system has cooled and expanded, nucleons in close proximity and moving with small relative momenta coalesce to form nuclei. Light nuclei production enables the study of several topics, including the mechanism of composite particle production, freeze-out temperature, size of the interaction region, and entropy of the system. NA44 is the only relativistic heavy-ion experiment to have both deuteron and antideuteron results in both pA and AA collisions and the first CERN experiment to study the physics topics addressed by d and d production.
PRELIMINARY DATA.
Negative pion spectra emitted in the reactions of 775 MeV/nucleon La139+12C and La139+139La reactions have been measured in coincidence with the projectile fragments using the HISS spectrometer at the Bevalac. Prominent peaks near the beam velocity were observed in the pion spectra. Position and widths of the peaks were studied as a function of the ‘‘sum charge’’ of projectile fragments which is a good measure of impact parameter; the smaller the ‘‘sum charge,’’ the smaller the impact parameter. The peak position down shifts with the smaller ‘‘sum charge.’’ The pion peak is wider in the transverse than in the longitudinal direction, possibly mirroring the velocity dispersions of projectile fragments in the early stage of reactions.
THE CHARGE IN THE TABLE IS THE SUM CHARGE OF OBSERVED FRAGB. A TWO-DIMENSIONAL SPECTRUM WAS FITTED BY A SINGLE TWO-DIMENSIONAL GAUSSIAN FUNCTION ON A FLAT BACKGROUND.
THE CHARGE IN THE TABLE IS THE SUM CHARGE OF OBSERVED FRAGB. A TWO-DIMENSIONAL SPECTRUM WAS FITTED BY A SINGLE TWO-DIMENSIONAL GAUSSIAN FUNCTION ON A FLAT BACKGROUND.
Forum