Subthreshold ¯p andK− and energeticπ− production was studied in Ne + NaF, Cu, Sn and Bi, and in Ni + Ni collisions with incident energies between 1.6 and 2 GeV/u. The measured cross sections indicate a dominant contribution of baryonic resonances. This is also consistent with a generalized scaling behaviour of the cross sections with the energy available in the collision and the energy necessary to produce particles as observed with Ne induced reactions. Deviations from scaling especially pronounced in the Ni-Ni system will be discussed in terms of absorption effects. The flat slope of the excitation function for ¯p production can be related to a reduced production threshold caused by a reduction of the antiproton mass in the dense and heated medium by about 100—150 MeV/c2. A similar in-medium mass reduction is also indicated forK− mesons. An increased ¯p reabsorption probability for the heavier systems is concluded from the comparison of the ¯p yields in Ne + NaF, Ne + Sn and Ni + Ni collisions.
Besides the dedicated search for strangelets NA52 measures light (anti)particle and (anti)nuclei production over a wide range of rapidity. Compared to previous runs the statistics has been increased in the 1998 run by more than one order of magnitude for negatively charged objects at different spectrometer rigidities. At a rigidity of −20 GeV/ c we measured 10 6 p , 10 3 d and one 3 He without any centrality requirements. These preliminary results together with previous measurements near central rapidity are discussed in the framework of a thermodynamical and a coalescence model.
We searched for long-lived strange quark matter particles, so-called strangelets , and studied particle and antiparticle production in Pb + Pb collisions at 158 GeV/ c per nucleon at zero degree production angle. We give upper limits for the production of strangelets covering a mass to charge ratio up to 120 GeV/ c 2 and lifetimes t lab > 1.2 μ s and plot invariant differential production cross sections as a function of rapidity for a variety of particles.
We investigate antinuclei production in Pb + Pb interactions at 158 GeV/ c per nucleon at zero degree production angle. We quote invariant differential production cross sections for antiprotons and antideuterons. The corresponding antideuteron to antiproton ratio at midrapidity is 4.2 · 10 −4 . One antihelium-3 nucleus was observed. The results are discussed in the framework of a simple coalescence model.
Recently, highly relativistic Au beams have become available at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Alternating Gradient Synchrotron. Inclusive production cross sections for composite particles, d, t, He3, and He4, in 11.5A GeV/c Au+Pt collisions have been measured using a beam line spectrometer. For comparison, composite particle production was also measured in Si+Pt and p+Pt collisions at similar beam momenta per nucleon (14.6A GeV/c and 12.9 GeV/c, respectively). The projectile dependence of the production cross section for each composite particle has been fitted to Aprojα. The parameter α can be described by a single function of the mass number and the momentum per nucleon of the produced particle. Additionally, the data are well described by momentum-space coalescence. Comparisons with similar analysis of Bevalac A+A data are made. The coalescence radii extracted from momentum-space coalescence fits are used to determine reaction volumes (‘‘source size’’) within the context of the Sato-Yazaki model.
Invariant cross-sections are presented for the inclusive reaction p + p → π o + anything, Measurements of large transverse momentum π o 's (2.5 GeV/ c < p ⊥ <9 GeV/ c ) were made near 90° at the CERN ISR at five centre-of-mass energies (√ s = 23.5, 30.6, 44.8, 52.7 and 62.4 GeV. At large p ⊥ , the invariant cross-sections are seem to vary with s and p ⊥ , in good agreement with a fit of the form Ap ⊥ − n F ( p ⊥ /√ s ), with n ≈8 and F ( p ⊥ /√ s )≈ exp (−26 p ⊥ /√ s ).
The inclusive production al all charged particles of transverse momentum p T between 1.5 and 4.4 GeV/ c at centre of mass angles 90° and 59.4° from p-p-collisions with √ s = 44 and 53 GeV has been measured. No strong energy dependence is observed for these transverse momenta.