Abstract
Several hadronic observables have been studied in central Pb+Pb collisions using data measured by the WA98 experiment at CERN: single and production, as well as two- and three-pion interferometry. The Wiedemann-Heinz hydrodynamical model has been fitted to the pion spectrum, giving an estimate of the temperature and transverse flow velocity. Bose-Einstein correlations between two identified have been analyzed as a function of using two different parametrizations. The results indicate that the source does not have a strictly boost invariant expansion or spend time in a long-lived intermediate phase. A comparison between data and a hydrodynamical based simulation shows very good agreement for the radii parameters as a function of The pion phase-space density at freeze-out has been measured, and agrees well with the Tomás̆ik-Heinz model. A large pion chemical potential close to the condensation limit of seems to be excluded. The three-pion Bose-Einstein interferometry shows a substantial contribution of the genuine three-pion correlation, but not quite as large as expected for a fully chaotic and symmetric source.
- Received 1 October 2002
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.67.014906
©2003 American Physical Society