Centauro- and anti-Centauro-type events

Assuming that leading particles in high-energy hadronic and nuclear collisions become sources of a classical pion field, we show that the direct production of pions favors Centauro (mainly charged) events and that the production of pions through the $\rho$-type channel favors anti-Centauro (mainly neutral) events. We also observe a strong negative neutral-charged correlation in both cases.Comment: 14 pages, 2 pictures, late

Can pions created in high-energy heavy-ion collisions produce a Centauro-type effect?

We study a Centauro-type phenomenon in high-energy heavy-ion collisions by assuming that pions are produced semiclassically both directly and in pairs through the isovector channel. The leading-particle effect and the factorization property of the scattering amplitude in the impact-parameter space are used to define the classical pion field. By analyzing the joint probability function $P_{II_{3}}(n_{0},n_{\_})$ for producing $n_{0}$ neutral and $n_{-}$ negative pions from a definite isospin state $II_{3}$ of the incoming leading-particle system we show that only direct production of pions without isovector pairs favors Centauro-type behavior. The presence of isovector pairs seems to destroy the effect. Our conclusion is supported through the calculation of two pion correlation parameters, $f_{2}^{0-}$ and $f_{2}^{00}$, and the average number of neutral pions $(_{n_{\_}})$ as a function of negative pions $(n_{\_})$ produced.Comment: 12 pages, 3 pictures, late