Interactions of 10.6 GeV/nucleon gold nuclei in nuclear emulsion

Stacks of nuclear emulsion were exposed at the Brookhaven AGS to a 10.6 GeV/n beam of gold nuclei in the BNL 868 experiment. A preliminary analysis of the main features of the interactions of these nuclei is reported here and compared with those observed previously at lower energies,E<1 GeV/n. The multiplicity and pseudo-rapidity distributions of the singly charged particles emitted both in central and in minimum bias samples of interactions have been analyzed in order to look for any non random effects indicative of the nuclear state during the interactions. The fragmentation characteristics of the gold projectiles appear to be different at 10.6 GeV/n from those at ≦1 GeV/n incident energy. Fission of the gold projectiles, which was relatively frequent at low energy, is almost entirely suppressed. Some of alpha particles from the projectile are emitted with very large transverse momenta. In gold-emulsion interactions the residual target nuclei are significantly smaller than in oxygen and sulfur interactions in emulsion.