Determination of the number of wounded nucleons in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c

The charged particle multiplicity distributions measured by two experiments, WA97 and NA57, in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c have been analyzed in the framework of the wounded nucleon model (WNM). We obtain a good description of the data within the centrality range of our samples. This allows us to make use of the measured multiplicities to estimate the number of wounded nucleons of the collision

Multiplicity of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at SPS energies

The multiplicity of charged particles in the central rapidity region has been measured by the NA57 experiment in Pb-Pb collisions at the CERN SPS at two beam momenta: 158 A GeV/c and 40 A GeV/c. The value of dN(ch)/d eta at the maximum has been determined and its behaviour as a function of centrality has been studied in the centrality range covered by NA57 (about 50% of the inelastic cross section). The multiplicity increase is compatible with a logarithmic dependence on the centre of mass energy. The results are compared with those from other experiments and with the VENUS and RQMD models

Experiment NA57 at the CERN SPS

Experiment NA57 studies the production of strange and multi-strange baryons and antibaryons in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at the SPS. The principal aim of NA57 is to investigate the existence of an onset for the strangeness enhancement effect at the variation of the energy and centrality (i.e. number of participants) of the nucleus-nucleus collisions. The experiment was successfully installed and commissioned in 1997

Determination of the number of wounded nucleons in Pb + Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c

The charged particle multiplicity distributions measured with the WA97 and the NA57 multiplicity detectors in Pb + Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c have been analyzed in the framework of the Wounded Nucleon Model (WNM). We obtain a good description of the data within the centrality range of our samples. This allows us to make use of the measured multiplicities tc, estimate the number of wounded nucleons of the collision