Results on transverse mass spectra of neutral pious measured at central rapidity are presented for impact parameter selected 158-A GeV Pb + Pb-1 and Pb + Nb collisions. The distributions cover the ...range 0.5 GeV/c(2) less than or equal to MT - Mo less than or equal to 4 GeV/c(2). The change of the spectral shape and the multiplicity with centrality is studied in detail. In going from p+p to semi-peripheral Pb+Pb collisions there is a nuclear enhancement increasing with transverse mass similar to the well known Cronin effect, while for very central collisions this enhancement appears to be weaker than expected.
A large acceptance tracking system, specially developed for tracking at very high particle densities encountered in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions is described. The system is a combination ...of multi-step avalanche chambers equipped with electronic pad readout with high position resolution in two dimensions and streamer-tube detectors with pad readout, with coarser position resolution, that is sufficient for safe pattern recognition. A high-resolution time-of-flight system (time resolution better than 90 ps) provides particle identification up to 8 GeV/
c for pions and protons and pion/kaon separation up to 4 GeV/
c. All detectors in the tracking system are read out with new, high-performance integrated circuits. The system can operate at high event rates due to efficient zero suppression. The performance of the system for tracking under real running conditions with Pb-beam at 158 A GeV in the WA98 experiment at CERN is presented.
Measurements of direct photon production in p+Pb and p+C collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 17.4\mathrm{GeV}$ are presented. Upper limits on the direct photon yield as a function of $p_\mathrm{T}$ ...are derived and compared to the results for Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 17.3$ GeV. The production of the $\eta$ meson, which is an important input to the direct photon signal extraction, has been determined in the $\eta \rightarrow 2\gamma$ channel for p+C collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 17.4\mathrm{GeV}$.
Two-particle correlations of direct photons were measured in central 208Pb+208Pb collisions at 158A GeV. The invariant interferometric radii were extracted for 100<K(T)<300 MeV/c and compared to ...radii extracted from charged pion correlations. The yield of soft direct photons, K(T)<300 MeV/c, was extracted from the correlation strength and compared to theoretical calculations.
A new readout concept based on a custom-design chip containing both analog and digital functions as well as ultra-thin mounting with the chip-on-board technique is presented. The full readout system ...as well as fabrication and testing is described. A 70
000 channels system based on this concept was installed in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The performance of the readout electronics is presented.
We have developed large area multi-step avalanche chambers with electronic readout for tracking in a very high multiplicity environment in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The operational ...characteristics of the detection system is reported. The reconstruction efficiency of the chambers varies with the density of charged particles in the range of 91–96%. The position resolution has been found to be 0.5 and 1.7
mm in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively.
Event-by-event fluctuations in the multiplicities of charged particles and photons, and the total transverse energy in 158A GeV Pb+Pb collisions are studied for a wide range of centralities. For ...narrow centrality bins the multiplicity and transverse energy distributions are found to be near perfect Gaussians. The effect of detector acceptance on the multiplicity fluctuations has been studied and demonstrated to follow statistical considerations. The centrality dependence of the charged particle multiplicity fluctuations in the measured data has been found to agree reasonably well with those obtained from a participant model. However, for photons the multiplicity fluctuations have been found to be lower compared to those obtained from a participant model. The multiplicity and transverse energy fluctuations have also been compared to those obtained from the VENUS event generator.
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