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.
Multiplicity distributions, observed inK+ interactions with Al and Au nuclei at 250 GeV/c incident momentum are presented. They are analyzed in the framework of multiple collisions of the incident particle inside a nucleus. The probability distribution of the number of grey tracks is well described by the model of Andersson et al., if a negative binomial distribution is assumed for the distribution of the number of grey protons produced per elementary collision instead of the usual geometrical distribution. The analysis of the average and dispersion of the charge multiplicity distribution supports the validity of the multiple collision model, including results on correlations between forward and backward multiplicities.
Central collisions of O16 nuclei with the Ag107 and Br80 nuclei in nuclear emulsion at 14.6, 60, and 200 GeV/nucleon are compared with proton-emulsion data at equivalent energies. The multiplicities of produced charged secondaries are consistent with the predictions of superposition models. At 200 GeV/nucleon the central particle pseudorapidity density is 58±2 for those events with multiplicities exceeding 200 particles.
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