Centrality dependence of charged-neutral particle fluctuations in 158A (GeVPb)-Pb-208+Pb-208 collisions

Results on the study of localized fluctuations in the multiplicity of charged particles and photons produced in 158A GeV/c Pb+Pb collisions are presented for varying centralities. The charged versus neutral particle multiplicity correlations in common phase space regions of varying azimuthal sizes are analyzed by two different methods. Various types of mixed events are constructed to probe fluctuations arising from different sources. The measured results are compared to those from simulations and from mixed events. The comparison indicates the presence of nonstatistical fluctuations in both the charged particle and photon multiplicities in limited azimuthal regions. However, no correlated charged-neutral fluctuations, a possible signature of formation of disoriented chiral condensates, are observed. An upper limit on the production of disoriented chiral condensates is set

Centrality and transverse momentum dependence of collective flow in 158 A GeV Pb+Pb collisions measured via inclusive photons

Directed and elliptic flow of inclusive photons near mid-rapidity in 158 A GeV Pb + Pb collisions has been studied. The data have been obtained with the photon spectrometer LEDA of the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The flow strength has been measured for various centralities as a function of p(T) and rapidity over 0. 18 <p(T) <1.5 GeV/c and 2.3 <y <2.9. The angular anisotropy has been studied relative to an event plane obtained in the target fragmentation region that shows the elliptic flow to be in-plane. The elliptic flow has also been studied using two-particle correlations and shown to give similar results. A small directed flow component is observed. Both the directed and elliptic flow strengths increase with p(T). The photon flow results are used to estimate the corresponding neutral pion flow. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved