Multiplicity and Pseudorapidity Distributions of Charged Particles and
Photons at Forward Pseudorapidity in Au + Au Collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4
GeV
We present the centrality dependent measurement of multiplicity and
pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles and photons in Au + Au
collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4 GeV. The charged particles and photons are
measured in the pseudorapidity region 2.9 < eta < 3.9 and 2.3 < eta < 3.7,
respectively. We have studied the scaling of particle production with the
number of participating nucleons and the number of binary collisions. The
photon and charged particle production in the measured pseudorapidity range has
been shown to be consistent with energy independent limiting fragmentation
behavior. The photons are observed to follow a centrality independent limiting
fragmentation behavior while for the charged particles it is centrality
dependent. We have carried out a comparative study of the pseudorapidity
distributions of positively charged hadrons, negatively charged hadrons,
photons, pions, net protons in nucleus--nucleus collisions and pseudorapidity
distributions from p+p collisions. From these comparisons we conclude that
baryons in the inclusive charged particle distribution are responsible for the
observed centrality dependence of limiting fragmentation. The mesons are found
to follow an energy independent behavior of limiting fragmentation while the
behavior of baryons seems to be energy dependent.Comment: 17 pages and 20 figure