Multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles and photons at forward pseudorapidity in Au+Au collisons at sNN=62.4 GeV

Abstract

We present the centrality-dependent measurement of multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles and photons in Au+Au collisions at sNN=62.4 GeV. The charged particles and photons are measured in the pseudorapidity region 2.9≤η≤3.9 and 2.3≤η≤3.7, respectively. We have studied the scaling of particle production with the number of participating nucleons and the number of binary collisions. The photon and charged particle production in the measured pseudorapidity range has been shown to be consistent with energy-independent limiting fragmentation behavior. Photons are observed to follow a centrality-independent limiting fragmentation behavior, while for charged particles it is centrality dependent. We have carried out a comparative study of the pseudorapidity distributions of positively charged hadrons, negatively charged hadrons, photons, pions, and net protons in nucleus-nucleus collisions and pseudorapidity distributions from p+p collisions. From these comparisons, we conclude that baryons in the inclusive charged particle distribution are responsible for the observed centrality dependence of limiting fragmentation. The mesons are found to follow an energy-independent behavior of limiting fragmentation, whereas the behavior of baryons is energy dependent. © 2006 The American Physical Society.