DOI 10.1007/s1005298000920
On event-by-event fluctuations in nuclear collisions
Marek Gazdzicki1 - Andrei Leonidov2 - Gunther Roland1
1 Institut für Kernphysik, Universität Frankfurt,
August-Euler Str. 6, D-60486 Frankfurt/M, Germany
2 P.N. Lebedev Physics Institute, 117924 Leninsky pr. 53,
Moscow, Russia
Received: 23 January 1998 / Published online: 30 July 1998
Abstract
We demonstrate that a new type of analysis in heavy-ion collisions,
based on an event-by-event analysis of the transverse momentum
distribution, allows us to obtain information on secondary interactions
and collective behaviour that is not available from the inclusive
spectra. Using a random walk model as a simple phenomenological
description of initial state scattering in collisions with heavy
nuclei, we show that the event-by-event measurement allows a
quantitative determination of this effect, well within the resolution
achievable with the new generation of large acceptance hadron
spectrometers. The preliminary data of the NA49 collaboration on
transverse momentum fluctuations indicate qualitatively different
behaviour than that obtained within the random walk model.
The results are discussed in relation to the thermodynamic and
hydrodynamic description of nuclear collisions.
Copyright Springer-Verlag
