Centrality dependence of kaon yields in Si+A and Au+Au collisions at relativistic energies
- Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439-4843 (United States)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973 (United States)
- Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
- University of California at Riverside, Riverside, California 92507 (United States)
- Columbia University, New York, New York 10027 and Nevis Laboratories, Irvington, New York 10533 (United States)
- High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tanashi-branch, (Tanashi) Tokyo 188 (Japan)
- Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812 (Japan)
- Kyoto University, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606 (Japan)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)
- Laboratory for Nuclear Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
- New York University, New York, New York 10003 (United States)
Charged kaon production has been measured in Si+Al and Si+Au collisions at 14.6A GeV/c, and Au+Au collisions at 11.1A GeV/c by Experiments 859 and 866 (the E-802 Collaboration) at the BNL AGS. Invariant transverse mass spectra and rapidity distributions for both K{sup +} and K{sup {minus}} are presented. The centrality dependence of rapidity-integrated kaon yields is studied. Strangeness enhancement is observed as an increase in the slope of the kaon yield with the total number of participants as well as the yield per participant. The enhancement starts with peripheral Si+Al and Si+Au collisions (relative to N+N) and appears to saturate for a moderate number of participating nucleons in Si+Au collisions. It is also observed to increase slowly with centrality in Au+Au collisions, to a level in the most central Au+Au collisions that is greater than that found in central Si+A collisions. The enhancement factors for K{sup +} production are 3.0{plus_minus}0.2(stat){plus_minus}0.4(syst) and 4.0{plus_minus}0.3(stat){plus_minus}0.5(syst), respectively, for the most central 7{percent} Si+Au collisions and the most central 4{percent} Au+Au collisions relative to N+N at the correponding beam energy. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}
- OSTI ID:
- 698891
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review, C, Vol. 60, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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