Formation of dense groups of particles in intermediate-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

The formation of dense groups (fluctuations) of particles produced in the central CCu and MgMg collisions at the projectile momenta of, respectively, 4.5 and 4.3 GeV/c per nucleon is analyzed. The distributions of the maximum densities and of the centers of charged-particle fluctuations in pseudorapidity space are studied in searches for dynamical multiparticle correlations. The distributions of the centers show two peaks above the statistical background with a structure similar to that which is expected in the model of coherent gluon emission and which was observed in hadronic interactions. The charge independence of the distributions in question and an azimuthal isotropy of events involving pseudorapidity fluctuations are observed. The distributions of events with respect to the maximum density of fluctuations are governed primarily by the statistical contribution, although the behavior of the distributions in CCu collisions is in qualitative agreement with the prediction of the one-dimensional intermittency model. It is found that the resulting distributions are of a non-Poisson character both in CCu and in MgMg collisions. The results of this study indicate that, in describing local dynamical fluctuations in multiparticle production processes, the coherent and the stochastic approach supplement each other. The procedure employed in the analysis described here makes it possible to draw a direct comparison of the present results with the results of similar investigations of different reactions.