Particle spectra and correlations from experiment 814

Abstract

In this article the authors summarize recent results from the E814 forward spectrometer on proton and pion distributions that give insight into the initial baryon (and energy) density achieved in central collisions as well as the temperature of the system at freeze-out. An independent measure for the latter, complementing the slope constants of particle spectra, is the population of nucleon excited states, in particular the {Delta}(1232) resonance. Besides its influence on the pion spectra it has also been identified directly in the experiment and first results are discussed. The first results from E814 on kaon spectra at low transverse momentum p{sub t} are presented; the spectra show an unexpected very steep rise at the lowest p{sub t}. The two pion correlation function has been studied for positive and negative pions and the authors show that it is consistent with a large source size at freeze-out. Finally, they show that the present data give a consistent picture of a system in thermal and chemical equilibrium at freeze-out.