Data on multiplicities of charged particles produced in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon are presented. It is shown that the mean multiplicity of negative particles is proportional to the mean number of nucleons participating in the collision both for nucleus-nucleus and proton-nucleus collisions. The apparent consistency of pion multiplicity data with the assumption of an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions is critically discussed.
Data on stable hadron production in p + p and p + n interactions at 200 GeV/ c are reviewed. Methods to construct missing data in the p + p, p + n, and n + n interactions are derived from charge symmetry and charge, baryon and strangeness conservation, and used to yield nucleon-nucleon interaction results. These may be useful for evaluating nucleus-nucleus collision measurements in terms of enhancements and suppressions. Parameterizations of p t 2 and rapidity distributions are presented to provide yields in acceptance cuts for comparisons to nucleus-nucleus data. As an example the derived nucleon-nucleon multiplicities are reduced to the acceptances of the NA-35 CERN S + S experiment.
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