We have measured rapidity densities dN/dy of pions and kaons over a broad rapidity range (-0.1 < y < 3.5) for central Au+Au collisions at sqrt(snn) = 200 GeV. These data have significant implications for the chemistry and dynamics of the dense system that is initially created in the collisions. The full phase-space yields are 1660 +/- 15 +/- 133 (pi+), 1683 +/- 16 +/- 135 (pi-), 286 +/- 5 +/- 23 (K+) and 242 +/- 4 +/- 19 (K-). The systematics of the strange to non--strange meson ratios are found to track the variation of the baryo-chemical potential with rapidity and energy. Landau--Carruthers hydrodynamic is found to describe the bulk transport of the pions in the longitudinal direction.
$\frac{1}{2\pi p_{\mathrm{T}}}\frac{\mathrm{d}^2N}{\mathrm{d}p_{\mathrm{T}}\mathrm{d}y}$ versus $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ for $\mathrm{\pi}^{+}$ in $\mathrm{Au}-\mathrm{Au}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=200\,\mathrm{Ge\!V}$ near $y=-0.1-0.0$ for $0-5$% central
$\frac{1}{2\pi p_{\mathrm{T}}}\frac{\mathrm{d}^2N}{\mathrm{d}p_{\mathrm{T}}\mathrm{d}y}$ versus $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ for $\mathrm{\pi}^{+}$ in $\mathrm{Au}-\mathrm{Au}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=200\,\mathrm{Ge\!V}$ near $y=0.0-0.1$ for $0-5$% central
$\frac{1}{2\pi p_{\mathrm{T}}}\frac{\mathrm{d}^2N}{\mathrm{d}p_{\mathrm{T}}\mathrm{d}y}$ versus $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ for $\mathrm{\pi}^{+}$ in $\mathrm{Au}-\mathrm{Au}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=200\,\mathrm{Ge\!V}$ near $y=0.4-0.6$ for $0-5$% central
Transverse momentum spectra and rapidity densities, dN/dy, of protons, anti-protons, and net--protons (p-pbar) from central (0-5%) Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 200 GeV were measured with the BRAHMS experiment within the rapidity range 0 < y < 3. The proton and anti-proton dN/dy decrease from mid-rapidity to y=3. The net-proton yield is roughly constant for y<1 at dN/dy~7, and increases to dN/dy~12 at y~3. The data show that collisions at this energy exhibit a high degree of transparency and that the linear scaling of rapidity loss with rapidity observed at lower energies is broken. The energy loss per participant nucleon is estimated to be 73 +- 6 GeV.
$\frac{1}{2\pi p_{\mathrm{T}}}\frac{\mathrm{d}^2N}{\mathrm{d}p_{\mathrm{T}}\mathrm{d}y}$ versus $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ for $\mathrm{p}$,$\overline{\mathrm{p}}$ in $\mathrm{Au}-\mathrm{Au}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=200\,\mathrm{Ge\!V}$ . NaN values means no observation.
$\frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}y}$ versus $y$ for $\mathrm{p}$,$\overline{\mathrm{p}}$,$\mathrm{p}-\overline{\mathrm{p}}$ in $\mathrm{Au}-\mathrm{Au}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=200\,\mathrm{Ge\!V}$ . The correction for the $\Lambda$ contribution is not straight forward since BRAHMS does not measure the $\Lambda$s and PHENIX and STAR only measures the $\Lambda$s at mid-rapidity! If one assumes that the mid-rapidity estimated in the paper of $$R=\frac{\Lambda-\bar{\Lambda}}{\mathrm{p}-\bar{\mathrm{p}}} = \frac{\Lambda}{\mathrm{p}} = \frac{\bar{\Lambda}}{\bar{\mathrm{p}}} = 0.93\pm 0.11(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.25(\mathrm{syst}) $$ and the BRAHMS "acceptance factor" of $A=0.53\pm 0.05$ which includes both that only 64% decays to protons and that some are rejected by the requirement of the track to point back to the IP. The corrected $\mathrm{p}$ ($\bar{\mathrm{p}}$ or net-$\mathrm{p}$) is then : $$\left.\frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}y}\right|_{\mathrm{corrected}} = \frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}y}(1/(1+RA))= \frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}y}\left(0.67\pm 0.05(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.11(\mathrm{syst})\right)$$ Which can be used at all rapidities if one believes that R is constant. The fact that net-$\mathrm{K}=\mathrm{K}^{+}-\mathrm{K}^{-}$ follows net-$\mathrm{p}$ (see fx. talk by Djamel Ouerdane at QM04), seems to indicate that the net-$\Lambda$ follow the net-$\mathrm{p}$ trend and the correction is reasonable.
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