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Baryon Stopping and Charged Particle Distributions in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 GeV per Nucleon
Net proton and negative hadron spectra for central \PbPb collisions at 158
GeV per nucleon at the CERN SPS were measured and compared to spectra from
lighter systems. Net baryon distributions were derived from those of net
protons, utilizing model calculations of isospin contributions as well as data
and model calculations of strange baryon distributions. Stopping (rapidity
shift with respect to the beam) and mean transverse momentum \meanpt of net
baryons increase with system size. The rapidity density of negative hadrons
scales with the number of participant nucleons for nuclear collisions, whereas
their \meanpt is independent of system size. The \meanpt dependence upon
particle mass and system size is consistent with larger transverse flow
velocity at midrapidity for \PbPb compared to \SS central collisions.Comment: This version accepted for publication in PRL. 4 pages, 3 figures.
Typos corrected, some paragraphs expanded in response to referee comments, to
better explain details of analysi